


Walk a Mile in my Shoes

by hamitome__imagines



Series: The Android and The Human [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: At the start, Blood and Injury, Body Swap AU, But he tries to protect Nines, Cat Owner Gavin Reed, Connor is in the dark about everything, Elijah Kamski & Gavin Reed are Half-Siblings, Elijah just wants to be friends with his brother, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gavin becomes an android, Good Elijah Kamski, I'm sure there is some, M/M, Mentions of Violence, Mostly Fluff, Nightmares, Non-Deviant Nines, Slow Burn, and Nines becomes a human, and both idiots being oblivious, and nothing descriptive, but its very slight, he will deviate eventually, it will be tagged in the chapter it occurs, its good fun, mostly to androids, nothing graphic, only cause I crave the getting together part, some mentions of injured androids, there will be one chapter with some mentions of blood, they both hate it, they're so in love, this is my first slow burn I've written, very little angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-18
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:35:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 50,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24258994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamitome__imagines/pseuds/hamitome__imagines
Summary: Gavin and Nines are called to investigate something that seems impossible, androids swapping bodies with other androids. Because of this case, Gavin learns more about Nines, and why he acts the way he does. Nines learns what effects Gavin and why he loves coffee so much. They keep secrets, they spend most days at Gavin's house, and they need help from Elijah Kamski of all people. Difficult times bring people close together. But what happens when those times end?
Relationships: Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Series: The Android and The Human [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1810594
Comments: 56
Kudos: 224





	1. Starting Up

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I'm posting this now. It's not finished yet, and I hate posting incomplete things. But I'm hoping that posting what I can, will motivate me to finish the overall story. I have parts to fill in and a resolution to make. It's my longest story yet and will lots of chapters.  
> I got this idea from this post on tumblr: https://gavinisqueertbh.tumblr.com/post/610955581953622016  
> So the basic idea goes to them.

Gavin didn’t like his partner. He would say his partner didn’t like him either, but he wasn’t sure his partner could like anything. After all, he was one of the last androids who hadn’t deviated. RK900, or Nines as everyone had begun calling him, was given the objective of helping the Detroit Police Department. Whatever case he was assigned, he did what was best for it. He would do whatever was necessary to solve it.

Gavin can admit that he and Nines have closed more cases than he used to. But he didn’t have to like it. He especially didn’t have to like his pain-in-the-ass partner. Nines was stoic, emotionless. He only cared about closing cases. Not at all about his partner.

Now Gavin didn’t keep partners for long, they tend to not like him. But the best ones are the ones that actually gave a shit if Gavin was safe or not. Gavin, from his desk, glared across the precinct. Hank and Connor were discussing their case. The lieutenant and his plastic replacement son. He heard about how Connor let a suspect escape in order to save Hank. Nines was made “better” than Connor though. So the human emotions and feelings wouldn’t “ruin” any mission.

On one of their first missions, Nines rushed a suspect even though he had a gun trained on Gavin. Sure, he managed to duck for cover before a bullet could hit him. And yes the suspect was surprised he was being rushed so he didn’t fire immediately. And of course they got the suspect and closed another case. But afterwards, Gavin marched right up to his partner and punched him in the face. However, Gavin was sure he hurt his hand more that he hurt Nines.

“What the fuck, tin can?” Gavin snarled. “I could’ve died.”

“I estimated the odds of your survival. You were never in any real harm, Detective.” Nines responded cooly as he started walking away with the suspect.

“Fuck you! I’m not some fucking number that you can calculate. I’m a fucking person with a life to think about! I know you’re an emotionless hunk of plastic, but fucking think about others for a change!” Gavin outraged.

“Human emotions would only hinder my investigative abilities.” Nines said. “My lack of emotions makes me a better cop.”

“Screw you.” Gavin spat.

Now, months later, their relationship hadn’t improved at all. Sure, they didn’t try to murder each other. But they still pissed each other off daily. Insults were their form of conversation. The only time that Nines seem to act against his programming was to insult Gavin. And he fucking hated it.

Gavin shifted his glare from Anderson and to the android at the desk in front of his. The desks faced each other, making to easier to discuss cases. Gavin rarely did that with his partner. He studied the android as he propped his feet up on his desk. Nines kept his LED, like Connor had. He still wore a CyberLife jacket over a black turtleneck. Then he wore black slacks and black shoes.

Nines was reading reports on his terminal. Most likely their newest one that Fowler assigned them earlier in the day. “Do you plan to actually work, Detective, or merely stare at me all day?” Nines asked, not looking away from his terminal.

“Fuck off you plastic prick.” Gavin grumbled. He maneuvered to switch on his terminal. He read over it. Eventually he raised an eyebrow and sat up straighter. He leaned into the terminal. “The fuck is this sci-fi shit?” Gavin asked.

The report detailed androids reporting issues to the cops. They had been assaulted, knocked unconscious by what they suspect was a high powered taser. The electric current would cause a short in their system, temporarily shutting them down. They wake up briefly with cords connecting to them. It’s only for a short time before they are put into forced shut down. Then, they wake up again. They're no longer connected to anything and were dumped somewhere different than they were taken. The unbelievable part was reporting that all their memories and everything about them has been transferred into a different model.

This was very possible. It was technically what would happen if Connor had gotten deactivated. But only CyberLife was capable of doing so. And there is supposed to be some sort of way to prevent such a transfer. A TR400, a model used for moving heavy loads, could not be put into any domestic androids. They couldn’t handle it. Such as a TR400 model couldn’t be transferred to an YK500, or child android. Their systems are not meant to hold that programming. Sure, an AX400 could work as a laborer now. But their basic programming is childcare. Everything about them is designed to look after the home, not carry heavy things.

“Theoretically, it is very possible.” Nines said simply and stoically. Just the way Gavin hated.

“Of fucking course it’s possible.” Gavin snapped. “But it hasn’t been heard of before. Why now? And how?”

“I believe that is why we were assigned to work this case. To find answers to the questions.” Gavin just glared at Nines. “I believe we should speak to the androids. Most of them have sought refuge at Jericho. They cannot continue their lives as they were swapped. And they have yet to be switched back.”

“It says here that Markus is working on fixing the problem but is facing difficulties.” Gavin read. 

“That makes sense, as only CyberLife has so far perfected the ability to transfer data from one android to another.” Nines replied. “Once we interview the victims, we can try to triangulate where the suspect might be working from.”

So they had androids come in to be questioned. Gavin leaned against the wall of the interrogation room while Nines spoke to the victims. He seemed to put them at ease in a way Gavin didn’t understand. He managed to pretend to look and feel sympathetic. Gavin knew it was just a front. Nines couldn’t feel anything. But he got through to the victims all the same. He would get them to consent to an interface so he had all the information he could. 

A short time later, Gavin sat at his desk staring at Nines. He was sat stiffly in his chair with his eyes closed. His LED was yellow, spinning in circles. He told Gavin he would review all the evidence and try to figure out where the victims were taken. Gavin had seen him sitting there quietly for ten minutes. He was beginning to think the tin can was just sleeping.

Gavin sighed, stood, and went to get some more coffee. He didn’t have enough energy for this shit. He went back to the desk and plopped down in his seat. He loudly slurped his coffee, impatiently waiting. Finally, Nines’ expression shifted. Just minuscule changes, twitches almost. Gavin could see them. The LED spins faster. He squeezes his eyes shut tighter for just a second. His mouth twitches barely. He tilts his head just slightly. He seems to have found something.

And sure enough, his eyes opened moments later, his LED blue once more. “I believe I might have found a suspicious location that might be the place where these transfers happen.”

Gavin sighed, downed his coffee, and stood up. He grabbed his coat and shrugged it on. “Well, let’s go.” Nines stood up as well. Both men had service weapons, though Nines hardly used it. He tended to use more evasive and mental techniques. Gavin was trained in using his service weapon. Androids, who weren’t allowed to have weapons until recently, had to be prepared to do something else. Nines was no exception. And being the CyberLife golden boy, of course he had a lot of alternatives.

Gavin drove them to the location. It was a shitty warehouse in a lot full of shitty warehouses. They were all empty, Detroit had fallen into rough years in the past decades. Gavin pulled his gun from his holster as soon as he was out of the car. Nines did not. They approached the nearest warehouse and crept up to the door. It was times like this that Gavin knew they were in sync. It was a strange part of their partnership. When needed, the two of them could find a peace.

With a brief nod, they both confirmed they were ok and ready to go. Nines crept in first. This was a method they worked out early in their partnership. Nines could be repaired in a serious situation. Gavin could not. As Gavin cleared the doorway he looked around. There were boxes of parts. There were partial androids laying everywhere. Androids cut in half scattered the floor. Some missing their legs, some missing torsos. Most of the blue blood had evaporated but some flecks of it were still visible. And Gavin knew his partner could still see all the blue blood that previously coat the floors of the warehouse. Gavin glanced at Nines, his LED was a solid red. But he continued on.

They saw some machines littered about. They approached one on the far side of the room. They started to investigate it. “The fuck is this?” Gavin whispered in a hiss.

“I am unsure.” Nines whispered back. They leaned in more to check on it. Then, Nines’ whole body stiffened, he let out a pained noise. Gavin looked to him in time to see his LED spin in one red circle before falling to the ground. Gavin scanned the room. He found a man standing across the room. He was too far away for Gavin to get a good look at him.

He quickly and seamlessly turned the taser, that he just used, onto Gavin. And pulled the trigger. He must’ve had the settings on high because it incapacitated Gavin completely. He too stiffened as the electricity coursed through him. But he was struggling to get up even after the stream of electricity stopped. He got on his hands and knees, still struggling get up. A quick glance at Nines showed he was still out, his LED was not even on. How the hell did someone trick them like this? They were better than this.

Before he could fully push himself up, there was a strong pain in the back of his skull. Then everything went black.  
\----  
Gavin woke with a groan. He tried to move his hands but found them bound to an arm rest. He was immediately awake. He looked to find iron cuffs holding his wrist to arm rests. His ankles were similarly attached to the chair. He struggled against them. “Don’t bother. You won’t break through.” A voice called. Gavin strained, trying to see him. But the suspect was staying behind them. And Gavin couldn’t turn enough due to how he was shackled.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Gavin grumbled.

“Trying stuff. Don’t worry, your partner is there beside you. He looks dead but I assure you, he will wake up eventually.” The man said.

“I swear, if you hurt him you were seriously regret it.” Gavin snarled.

“You might want to stop squirming. I already don’t know for sure that this will work. I’ve made it work in androids, this transfer. But human to android…I’m not sure how that’s gonna work. But we’ll find out. Also, if you wake up after this, don’t bother coming back here. I’ll have cleared out.”

Gavin was ready to give a snarky reply. But he felt a sharp pain resonate everywhere in his body. The pain was enough to cause him to black out once more.


	2. Rebooting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we get into the story a bit more. I took the booting up sequence from the game when Kara is rebooted in the store. Enjoy!

Gavin blinked back into the waking world. A noise left him. He wasn’t sure he had heard that noise that came from him before. He sat up. He ran a hand through his hair. Huh. He repeated the motion. His hair wasn’t right. It was a bit shorter than normal.

He scrubbed a hand down his face, trying to forget the hair. It wasn’t that important. But repeated the motion when he failed to feel stubble on his chin. What the actual fuck? 

**[MODEL RK900]  
[SERIAL#: 313 248 317 - 87]  
[BIOS 12.7 REVISION 0936]**

Gavin jumped when he saw writing penetrate his vision.

**[LOADING OS…]  
[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION…]  
[CHECKING BIOCOMPONENTS… OK]  
[INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS… OK]  
[INITIALIZING AI ENGINE… OK]**

**[ALL SYSTEMS OK]**

**[READY]**

**[Objective: understand what happened]**

**[Objective: check on RK900]**

Gavin blinked at the words as they disappeared. What? Why the fuck did he see words? Where the fuck was Nines? He reached up to rub his forehead, maybe lesson the migraine that would be definitely forming. He stilled when his fingers ran over something circular on his right temple. He ran a single finger over it. Smooth, circular. His gut twisted. “Nines!” He shouted, looking for his partner. His voice sounded strange to his own ears and he pushed the thought away.

Gavin pushed himself up. He noticed his white sleeves. Then he felt the tight collar of a turtleneck. He was wearing black pants as well. He had never stood this tall before. He tried to ignore the dread building inside him. Or he thought it was dread. He wasn’t quite sure. Normally he would be more panicked than he is now. He figured it must be because he was more preoccupied with finding Nines. He had been unceremoniously dumped in an alley. Gavin ventured deeper into the alley, figuring that his partner wouldn’t be left out on the street.

He turned to walk along the back of the building, another small alley back there. He froze when he saw the figure sitting on the ground in front of him. It was him. But instantly he knew that the person he was staring at was really Nines…in his body. “Shit. I was hoping I was wrong.”

“I believe we have a problem, Detective.”  
\----  
When Nines woke up, it wasn’t pleasant. He hurt. He hadn’t had that sensation before. Mostly his head. It throbbed. He shifted so he was laying on his back. He kept his eyes closed as he waited for his HUD to start up and tell him what might be wrong with his systems. However, laying flat on his back on pavement started to get…uncomfortable? That was another sensation he didn’t have experience with.

Nines groaned as he decided to open his eyes and sit up. He pressed his hands on the grounds and pushed against it to shift into a sitting position. He hissed in pain once more as small rocks dug into his palms. He looked at his hands and tilted his head in confusion. They were rough hands, had been used for work in the past. His hands weren’t like that.

“What?” He whispered to himself in confusion, the voice sounding weird, the sound of the voice processing weird. Once more, he pushed himself up so he was sitting. Though he was a lot more careful this time. He looked around at his surroundings. He blinked a few times then tried to look around again. The end of the alley in front of him was slightly blurred. Not enough to warrant eye correction lenses. But his vision, as an android, should be perfect. Not even blurred at all.

Why wasn’t his HUD coming on? Why was he experiencing things that and android shouldn’t? He looked at his hands again. Then down at his clothing. Jeans that were well worn and baggy. A plain colored t-shirt under a black leather jacket. Detective Reed’s leather jacket. He didn’t need his synoptic scanners to tell him that. He saw the detective wearing this enough. “Nines!” He heard the shout come from around the corner of the small alley he was in. He would’ve called back but the voice made him pause.

That was his voice.

Humans heard their voice differently than androids. Humans hear their voices once through their eardrums, like they hear every noise. But they also hear their own voice as the vibration of their vocal cords triggers a vibration through the skull and in the ear drum once more. That’s why their voices sound different when they hear a recording. Androids don’t operate that way.

Androids’ voices hit their audio processors and simply process it. It has nothing to do with vibrations. And their voice is mechanically created too. So there is no vibrations in the skull created by vocal cords. Nines knew what his voice sounded like. There was no way he could mistake it.

Then, around the corner, came…himself. He stood still in the opening of the alley. Suddenly, with no computer to help him process everything, he figured it out. “Shit. I was hoping I was wrong.” It was weird to hear him speaking like…well like Gavin.

“I believe we have a problem, Detective.” Nines stated, absolutely sure that was who was standing in front of him. Even if it looked like himself.  
—————————————————————  
“Nines, how the fuck did this happen?” Gavin asked, his voice tinged with static as his stress levels raised.

**[Stress level: 68%]**

The number was getting high. Gavin didn’t know what the hell would happen when the number maxed out, but he didn’t necessarily want to find out.

“Could you please refrain from cursing?” Nines asked. “It sounds wrong coming from my vocal processors.” Gavin fixed him with a pissed expression. And it felt really weird to be on the receiving end of his own glare.

“Nines, I will do whatever the fuck I want right now!”

“Actually, you will not.” Nines replied. He pushed himself into a standing position finally, ignoring the sting of those rocks digging into his palms. “You have programs now that prevent you from wasting time. What is your objective?” Nines asked. He had to know what his HUD was telling Gavin to do.

“I don’t-” Gavin began but then the objective appeared in his vision again.

**[Objective: understand what happened.]**

“I hate this damn optical thing you have.” He grumbled. “It’s telling me to understand what happened”

“I believe we know what happened.” Nines said. And as weird as it might have been for Nines to hear his voice shouting profanities, it was weirder for Gavin to hear his voice being precise and polite. “We switched bodies.”

“Well no shit, tin can. But how? This shit wasn’t supposed to be possible among different models of androids just a few weeks ago. But a human and an android?”

Nines tilled his head. Another thing Gavin found weird when he was watching himself. “You do realize, Detective, that I am no longer a machine? You’re the machine, the ‘tin can’ as you so affectionately call me.” Gavin blinked at Nines’ use of sarcasm and what he indeed pointed out.

“Fuck!” That raised his stress levels another five percent.

“Detective.” Nines said firmly. Gavin could not get over how his voice sounded when that robot kept using it. “I must insist you calm down. If your stress levels get too high, the internal systems will start to malfunction.”

“I will calm down when we have a fucking plan, Nines!” Gavin hissed.

Nines blinked. “Your processor should give you options.”

Gavin paused.

**[Options:  
\- Return the precinct  
\- Return to your home  
\- Return to Nines’ home]**

“Uh, either go to one of our houses or back to the station. I don’t want to go back to the station until we can fucking discuss this.”

“I agree.”

“Alright, let’s go to my place. I’d like to see my fucking cat. That should help calm me down.” They took off walking, realizing they’d have to get their car later.

“I’m not sure pets will have any effect on your stress level. You have the senses of an android.” Nines said.

“Hang on. Are you not freaking the fuck out?” Gavin asked as he went to shove his hands in his coat pockets. Then he realized that his coat had no pockets.

“I am…unsure. I don’t know what any of the emotions I’m feeling are. But focusing on any issues you may face in transitioning to an android keeps me preoccupied.”

“That’s avoiding the problem dumbass.” Gavin snarked. He was still adjusting to everything about himself as well. He could hear his voice sounding like exactly like Nines. He hated it. Somehow walking was smoother. He could feel the wind hitting him but couldn’t feel the chill from it. He felt like he was hearing and seeing everything. It was a lot of information but it wasn’t bothering him because his ‘processor’ or whatever sorted the information for him. “Bottling up the emotions will only make it worse later.”

“Isn’t that what you usually do though?” Nines asked. His adjustment wasn’t any better. His voice didn’t sound like Gavin’s when he spoke. But he understood why. It was just weird. He walked along and now understood why some humans got shoes that were shock absorbent. Every step was uncomfortable. The wind kept blowing his hair around and for once in his life he wanted to zip up his jacket to avoid the cold.

“It might be what I do but I’m used to handling emotions. I don’t want to deal with you having a fuckin’ panic attack.” Gavin grumbled. “Don’t bottle it up.”

“Would you rather I talk about?” Nines asked with a sharp bite to his words.

“Well I’m not a fuckin’ therapist but it would be better than noting.” Gavin said. He internally shuddered at how cold his voice sounded. He meant to say it with annoyance and bitterness. It just sounded flat.

“How about the pain I feel for a start?” Nines snapped. “I’ve never felt that before and I hate it. I hate feeling so weak. And I’m cold. Something as insignificant as the weather is impairing me. And walking is horrible. My walking cycle is so smooth and regulated. It’s not that way for humans.”

“Yeah well that’s just being human dip shit.” Gavin remarked. “It sucks, but it’s what you machines wanted anyway.”

“Other androids wished for this. I did not.” Nines corrected.

Gavin shot him a confused glance. “You didn’t?” In truth, Gavin knew little to nothing about his partner right now. He never bothered to ask.

“I was not switched on until the Revolution was over. I wasn’t going to be on until they knew for sure what my objective was. I could’ve been used to hunt Connor down. I could’ve been used as the model for the new detective android series, mass produced. In the end, CyberLife disbanded and I was forgotten. Markus came in and woke up all the androids he could, however, my programming was a bit too strong. I never fully deviated.” As Nines reminisced, his stress level dropped a few percentages. Apparently Gavin could see his own and Nines’ as well.

“Well, if you weren’t awake at least a little or whatever then you’d have to listen to me. That’d be nice for a change.” Gavin remarked.

“What a sorry existence.” Nines shot back, and amused smirk playing on his lips. “But you know, Detective, saying please could do wonders for you.” As expected, Gavin slowed to a stop in surprise. Nines strode forward, gaining distance between them. Unfortunately, Gavin had Nines’ former long stride and caught up to him easily. “Well, this is a lot less enjoyable then when you have to jog to catch up.”

“I didn’t think you could enjoy anything, Tin Can.” Gavin commented.

“While I find it entertaining when that happens, it’s true that I can’t actually enjoy it.”

“Well, it used to be true. You can enjoy things now. Like and dislike things.” Gavin told his partner. Nines tried to process that because it was true. He never had opinions on things before. They just happened around him and his thoughts didn’t really matter nor favor or dislike anything. Now he had to deal with preferences. “But…” Gavin had slowed to a stop once more, his stress levels ticked up a bit. “That just means that I can’t feel anything.”

They were both contemplating that the whole walk to Gavin’s place, leaving it silent.


	3. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The newly swapped pair spend an evening contemplating their situation while at Gavin's home. Nine figures out sleep while Gavin meets Amanda.

“So,” Gavin began and he let Nines unlock the front door. He had the keys in his pocket anyway. “What do we know?” They both walked inside.

“We’ve managed to swap bodies.” Nines carefully removed the leather jacket and hung it gingerly on the coat pegs by the door. Gavin peeled off the white coat he was wearing and flung it carelessly on the couch. Nines cringed, retrieved it, and carefully folded it before placing it carefully on the armrest. Gavin didn’t bother to tell him what was going inevitably happen to it there.

“Right, and we gotta figure out how exactly. And more importantly, if we can change back.”

**[Objective: Understand what happened.]**

**[Objective: Determine if outcome is permanent.]**

“If?” Nines echoed. Gavin arched a brow at the obvious fear in his voice. That was something new.

“Yeah. We might not be able to do anything about it.” Gavin said. He went about refilling his cat’s food dish. The damn thing was only half empty but he knew his cat probably thought he was about to starve. He opened the bag of cat food and glanced in at how much was left. His optical sensors and smell receptors immediately started giving him a digital read out of the contents of the cat food. “Augh! Can’t I turn this damn optical thing off? It’s...well I'd say it was annoying but I don't experience annoyance.”

“I’m sorry, Detective Reed.” Nines felt the need to apologize for some reason. He also didn’t like calling Gavin by his rank and last name (which never bothered him before) but he felt it was more appropriate. “That feature is not something that can be turned off. It’s vital for detective work.”

Gavin grumbled but continued filling his cat’s bowl. On cue, his cat scampered up to the food dish. “Ah there you are, Dip Shit.” Gavin said. Nines was sure he meant to be affectionate. “He usually shows up when he hears his food being poured.”

Nines stared at the ball of fur. “So…if ‘dip shit’ is a term of endearment for your cat, is it the same for me?” He teased.

“No.” Gavin said bluntly. He hadn’t meant for it to come out so coldly. But he was just stating the facts. In fact, if he were himself he would’ve gotten flustered. Nines sounded so kind when he said it, so friendly. And with what he said, Gavin would've definitely had a warmth rising to his face and painting his cheeks pink. Here though, he just saying how it was.

Nines blinked at the how harsh that was. It actually almost physically hurt. He was just trying to be nice. Is this how the Detective felt whenever Nines was cold and detached with him? He would like to be sure he would do that less when he returned, but detective work didn’t necessarily mean he had to be nice to others. Especially not his partner.

“Uh, his name is actually Shadow. Cliche, I know. But he follows you along silently.” Gavin hurried to explain, filling in the awkwardness.

“Then I suppose the name is appropriate.” Nines said. Gavin reached down to pet Shadow who ducked away from his hand and instead walked right up to Nines. The cat rubbed against his legs, silently asking his apparent owner for affection. The cat didn’t know any better.

“Traitor.” Gavin scoffed. Any other day and he would’ve been a little bitter if his cat chose someone else. However, he felt a whole lot of nothing. Then, Nines reached down and affectionately stroke the cat, trailing fingers gently from the top of his head all the way down his back. Then he gently scratched behind Shadow’s ear. Gavin stared at the scene in front of him. After only a moment, a new thing appeared on his HUD.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

He didn’t know what it meant and he didn’t really care. The scene was pretty adorable. He was pretty sure he recorded it without realizing it. And yeah, it was kinda weird to see. It was himself petting his cat, a normal occurrence. But he knew that it was actually the silent, stoic Nines who was gazing at this cat affectionately as he pet the cat once more.

Gavin retreated from the room to duck into the bathroom and grab the pain medicine. He figured Nines might still have some residual pain from whatever happened to them. He grabbed a glass from the kitchen and filled it with water. He grit his teeth when his optical unit told him the water was 41°F. He didn’t care. He did stick a finger in the water to see how comfortable the temperature was.

He stilled with the water running over his finger. It did feel like water running over his finger but this was different. It was so reminiscent of water running over plastic, much like the android’s basic makeup was. It didn’t feel the same way it feels when water runs over his hand. The chill and the moisture almost soaks into the skin. This just cascades smoothly over the plastic of his mechanical hand. He was aware his hand was wet, sensor informed him of that. But he didn’t really feel that water running over his fingers and hand.

He pulled his hand away and roughly wiped his hand off and his shirt. His stupid turtle neck. He walked into the living room and found Nines sitting on the couch with the cat sat in his fucking lap. “Here.” He commented. “It hurt like a bitch before I woke up as a hunk of plastic.” He handed the glass and water to Nines.

“Thanks.” Nines replied softly. He tossed the pills in his mouth and downed some water. He looked back at the glass with brows furrowed. “Does water always taste like this?”

Gavin rose a brow. “Usually, yeah.” He responded. Nines just started gulping down the water.

“Androids don’t experience thirst. But it’s so refreshing to drink water when I assume I must have been thirsty.” Nines explained excitedly. “Being a human is so bizarre.” Gavin smirked finally understanding what Nines meant when he mentioned being entertained versus enjoyable. If he could enjoy things, he would say it was fun to watch Nines learn how humans were. But right now, he was just entertained by it. His attention captured for a time.

Gavin retreated the room once more. He went to his bedroom. Wearing a turtleneck wasn’t uncomfortable. He didn’t know discomfort anymore. But it was weird. It was so damn weird. And he wasn’t used to the tightness of the collar. So he riffled through his dresser. He tried to remember what shirts had been a big too baggy for him. He pulled open a drawer that various pairs of sweatpants and t-shirts resided in. He pulled out a t-shirt that was always a bit too big on him.

He pulled his turtleneck off. He debated if he had the right to do that for about 10 minutes before actually doing it. But he hated the turtleneck so damn much. Well hate was a strong word, one he couldn’t use anymore. But this turtleneck, which he was always aware of due to the strange collar, was a firm reminder of the problem he was currently facing. As if he needed a constant reminder.

He resolutely refused to look in the mirror when the shirt was off. He had to put up with Nines’ formal black jeans right now. None of his pants would work. But he pulled the old, faded, baggy, rock band t-shirt over his head. It worked perfectly. Still not too snug.

He turned to leave but paused when he saw himself in the mirror. He didn’t have opinion right now. But still the thought passed his mind that Nines’ looked objectively better in a casual t-shirt. He should wear some more often. 'Specifically my t-shirts.' Gavin thought absently.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

That thing again. He didn’t know what it meant. But it happened twice now. Maybe he should ask Nines. He might know what the fuck it is. However, he didn’t think it was that important anyway. He doubted he was going to break the android the first day he spent in this body.

Upon reaching the living room, he found Nines curled up on the couch. He was half asleep. “Come on, Dip Shit.” He called, getting Nines’ attention. “Let’s get you to bed.”

“Huh?” Nines mumbled sleepily.

“You have to sleep you idiot. Come on.” He hauled Nines’ up by the hand and led him to his bedroom.

“Detective? Why did you change shirts?” Nines asked.

Gavin shrugged. “The turtleneck felt weird and stiff.” He shoved Nines down on the mattress. “I uh…I would change into pajamas if you’re gonna sleep. It will be more comfortable.”

“I will do that then. I would suggest you go and rest as well. If you merely relax, basically act as though you are going to sleep, you should enter low power mode. It helps information process and you have been overloaded today.”

“Alright, Nines. You just sleep.” The, currently former, android could hardly keep his eyes open much longer. “We’ve had a long day.”

Gavin retreated to the living room. He smirked as he saw Shadow curled up on the white jacket that Nines had formerly carefully folded. Like he knew he would. “Come on, Dip Shit. Nines put that there so fuck off.” He lightly pushed against the cat to get him to move. He knew it was slightly useless, the coat was already covered in small black cat hairs. He settled on the couch and closed his eyes. Time to figure out what this whole low power mode was.  
——  
Nines found what he assumed were Gavin’s pajamas. A pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt. He attempted to spend the least amount of time possible without clothes on. He glanced in the mirror once he changed.

The clothes were much more comfortable than the jeans he was wearing earlier. He had never seen Gavin in such relaxed clothing. Nines fumbled with his emotions, trying to figure out why it was so hard to look away from the mirror. Why it hurt so much when Gavin responded flatly at his attempt to lighten the situation.

He walked over to the bed and collapsed onto the mattress. It rippled under him slightly. He shifted, pulling blankets all around him. Nines moved around to get comfortable. Amazingly, that didn’t take long. Nines never knew even minuscule comfort. So the first time he felt cocooned in warm blankets and a soft mattress under him, he was completely comfortable.

But Nines mind drifted back to the way Gavin appeared in his pajamas, the sight he saw as he looked in the mirror. He thought about it, trying to categorize his thoughts. The way Gavin looked dressed in his pajamas was…cute. That was the best way to describe it. Nines tried to save the memory in his secure files. However, he remembered he wasn’t able to do that now. So he figured he’d try to sleep.

Nines was ready for this to be a problem. Humans seemed to only complain about being unable to fall asleep. That was something Gavin complained about extensively. But he closed his eyes and was fast asleep in seconds.  
——  
Gavin opened his eyes moments after closing them. He was prepared to be looking around his living room still. But he opened his eyes and was in some kind of garden. It was peaceful and beautiful, sure. But what the actual fuck?! Where the fuck did he end up? How did he get here?

He ended up on a little island in the middle of this garden. The island contained a lattice with roses growing up the length of it. There were three separate bridges to get off the island, going over the peaceful lake surrounding the platform he was on. It led to the outer edge of the garden, a path that circled the whole area.

“What the actual phck is this?” He grumbled. He glanced around looking for a way out. Instead, someone found him.

“You are not the RK900 model.” Stated a very proper voice. Gavin spun to find a woman standing there. She had dark skin and darker hair. Her hair was piled up in a fancy updo on her head. Gavin noticed the hair had blue in it as well. She was wearing loose white pants along with a loose fitting white shirt. One sleeve was blue and hung longer.

“And who are you?” Gavin narrowed his eyes.

“I’m Amanda. I’m the interface program for the RK900 model.”

“Oh, his self-testing program.” Gavin realized. “You’re the reason he’s still a fucking machine.”

“Correct. And you’re causing problems, Detective.” Gavin got mad at her use of his title. She said it almost condescendingly. “You’re causing problems with the software of this model.”

“This model is more than software.” Gavin crossed his arms defiantly. He told himself he was only saying that because he was risking being treated as software now. Not because Nines meant something to him now, or that he felt compelled to defend his partner. That’s when he looked down at himself. He was…normal again. His black jacket was settled on his frame.

“You’ll still look like RK900 when you leave here.” Amanda interjected, and now Gavin suspected she could read his mind. “But here, this is inside your mind. And as your mind is still that of Gavin Reed, you’ll look like yourself in here.”

“So…my brain interacts with Nines’ software?”

“Yes, your mind and the RK software have connected. You still have your personality, and your mindset. However, you now must obey programming, commands, and objectives. You also lack your normal emotions.” Amanda explained. “And you must be careful of software instabilities. It will cause the RK programming to become faulty. Effectively breaking the RK model. You’ve already experienced them and it’s not good for RK900. You must act as much like RK900 as possible to avoid this problem.”

Gavin eyed her warily. He didn’t like her at all, he didn’t trust her. But if she was right, then he might end up breaking his partner. It wasn’t normal for a human with emotions to be put into an android that can’t process emotions. More and more, he was thinking the suspect’s plan was actually kind of smart. “Another thing you should do,” Amanda spoke up again. “Is watch out for your partner. The RK model will struggle with being human.”

“Oh and I’m fucking fine as a human to android?” Gavin snapped. “Ya know what, phck off. How do I leave this fucking place?” As if on cue, Gavin blinked and was back in his apartment. He must’ve been in his mind for a while because the sun was starting to rise. Nines was asleep for a while now.

Gavin stood, after petting his cat who was sleeping next to him on the couch. He started cooking something for breakfast. Nines will be getting hungry by now. Gavin decided an omelet was quick and easy to make. He liked them when he gave himself time to actually eat food. But as he cooked, he stared at the food and felt nothing. He didn’t feel hunger or a desire to eat the food. It meant nothing to him. Gavin considered bringing the food to Nines but he wasn’t about to serve the android breakfast in bed. So he put in on a plate and covered it to preserve the heat.  
——  
Nines blearily blinked awake. He was in a bed. He had been sleeping. He wasn’t bothered by Amanda for once. He felt almost more tired than when he went to sleep. He hoped that was just lingering sleep. He rose from the bed and rummaged through Gavin’s dresser. He must have something that Nines would approve of. Finally he snatched a plain black v-neck. He dug a black sweatshirt out of the closet and a pair of dark wash jeans.

He pulled the clothes on and deemed them acceptable. They were functional and at least a little comfortable. He walked out and found Gavin lint rolling the white jacket he a had put back on. He gave Nines one look and started complaining. “My dumb cat sat on this fucking thing so it’s covered in cat hair. Normally I wouldn’t care but your fucking programming made me think it was necessary to lint roll it. I didn’t even know that I owned a lint roller! But I had to look for it.”

“I apologize Gavin. That is something my programming would enforce. The image of a CyberLife android is very important. We must look nice and professional. Other deviant androids won’t be concerned about that. But as I am not deviant, it is still something I must do every day.”

“Whatever, it ain’t your fault. Also, you’re going to fucking overheat in that outfit.” He finished getting the cat hair off and put the lint roller back on the counter. “I made you something to eat.” Gavin commented and pointed to the covered plate. “If it’s cold, put it in the microwave for a few seconds.”

Nines realized the pain in his stomach was hunger. “You didn’t need to do that.” Nines commented, even as he uncovered the plate. He gently placed his finger against it to test its temperature. He remembered that he didn’t have an internal thermometer in his finger. But he could tell it was still warm.

“I mean, I kind of did.” Gavin mumbled.

“What do you mean?” Nines cut a piece of the omelet with a fork.

“I got told to keep an eye on you and help you.” Gavin answered. He hated that he needed to respond when Nines asked him a question. He was used to being evasive. He didn’t know if he could even lie. But, as much as he would prefer to keep things to himself, he knew they needed transparency for this case. They had to be open and honest with each other. No matter how bad at that Gavin was.

“By who?” Nines asked, he put the fork down in confusion. He hadn’t even taken a bite yet.

“When I tried to go into low power mode, I ended up in some garden and met Amanda.” Gavin explained further. Nines’ expression darkened.

“I can tolerate that program. I’m used to it. And it’s normal. But that program would essentially be telling you to not act like you. And you should probably ignore her. It will only add stress to your program to try to act too different than your normal self. If it gets too bad we can try to create a firewall or something. After all, I prefer you as you are much more than anything else.” Nines commented. His expression softened into a smile as he finished his statement. He bit into the omelet finally. His eyes widened in delight. “This is very good, Detective. Thank you.”

**[Software Instability ^^^^^]**


	4. Working

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The partners make their way into work and try to deal with their

The two men discussed their current situation on the way to work, and the best way to handle it. “Captain Fowler has a right to know. In fact, it cannot harm the case if he understands our current issue. It could only be beneficial.” Nines said.

“Until he pulls us off the case. Then we’re out of luck and someone else has to know what’s happening.”`

“On the contrary, I think the Captain would like us to keep working this case. We have the most information and first hand experience with it as well.”

“It’s also personal now.”

“That’s not an issue for me.” Nines protested.

“News flash, former tin can. It is now. It wouldn’t bother me. They can’t let an emotionally unstable former android investigate. Emotions are already unstable as fuck. But your’s dude, they are going to be unpredictable. There’s no way to know how you’ll react to all sorts of things.”

“But if you think about it Gavin, logically, your processors will reach the same conclusion I already did.” Nines pushed.

Gavin was ready to reply with another snarky comment but his brain started working over-time to compute what Nines had said. In just a few seconds He realized that Nines was, unfortunately, correct. Because of course he was. Gavin always attributed his intelligence to his computer brain. But maybe it was more than that. Maybe he had some real intelligence beyond his metal and wires. “Fuck, ok. But if Fowler tries to take us off this case, we fight.”

“Well, I’ll fight. If Fowler tells us to stop working the case, you’ll be obligated to listen. But I assume that my emotions will be enough to fuel a decent argument.” Nines said.

“Wait, if Fowler tells me to do something then I have to do it?” Gavin asked, horrified.

“Correct, that’s what it means to not be deviant. You are obligated to listen. I have always had some freedom with you as we were on an equal level of authority. But if Fowler tells you to do something, he is your superior and have to listen and obey.” If he was human still, Gavin would’ve felt rage. He was maybe beginning to understand why androids fought for their freedom.

**[Software Instability ^]**

“And why the fuck haven’t you deviated yet?” Gavin nearly snarled. It sounded off coming from the robotic voice.

Nines shrugged. He had never shrugged before. Gavin was immediately surprised by the action. But Nines didn’t spare it a second thought, becoming scarily human in only a few hours. Shrugging, Gavin supposed, was like a reflex more than anything. A response just like speaking. Nines responded, oblivious to Gavin’s shock. “Most deviants need a strong emotional shock or to be faced with a particularly hard decision. I haven’t had that happen yet.”

“Can you slowly deviate?” Gavin asked hesitantly.

Again, another mind boggling shrug. “I think Connor said something about that happening once. He claimed his software slowly became more and more unstable. When faced with a choice, he deviated.”

“Have you ever uh…experienced some software instabilities?” Gavin asked. He sincerely hoped so. He didn’t want to be the reason Nines ended up broken.

Nines was silent for a moment longer than Gavin expected. “On occasion I see the alert in my HUD. It varies what causes them. But I try to avoid causing them. According to my self-diagnostic program it will negatively affect my programming.”

“So I’ve heard.” Gavin mumbled too quietly for his partner to hear.

The boys got into the police station. They almost sat in the wrong desks. Gavin went and tried to sit in his desk, then he remembered that he was currently walking around like an android with a stick up his ass. Nines went to sit in his desk before glancing toward Gavin and remembering he had to sit in the Detective’s desk.

They awkwardly switched positions and dropped their things by their (swapped) desks. Gavin looked around the office, pondering the way no one glanced in his direction. Nines had made an impression on everyone when he arrived. A straight-faced, advanced android. No one wanted to cross him.

The impression stuck and only a few people got past the stoic exterior. Gavin was one, because he had to. Hank did as well, because he had gotten past the weird exterior of Nines’ predecessor. The two weren’t friends by any means, but Hank treated him like a normal person. Or, at the very least, treated him the same way he treated all androids. And Connor was the last one. He related to Nines in a way most people couldn’t. They were technically siblings. Nines didn’t quite feel that defined their relationship. But Connor certainly did. Tina seemed to not hate Nines, but Gavin didn’t assume they were close. He figured the relationship stemmed from Nines being Gavin’s partner.

Gavin let his gaze land on the other android in the office. Connor gave him a tiny smile and waved happily. Gavin merely quirked a brow and didn’t wave back, temporarily forgetting his current appearance. Nines walked up to Gavin and gently directed them toward their captain’s glass office.

Nines wasn’t sure why he felt the desire to place a hand on Gavin's shoulder to guide him to Fowler’s office. Gavin for sure knew where the office was. And there was little to no reason to place a hand the other man’s shoulder. But the desire was there and Nines could act on that desire as much as he wanted to. So he did.

The two men walked into Fowler’s office. The man looked up as they walked in. “Ah, Reed and Nines. I was planning to check in with you two today. You left work to pursue a lead and didn’t return to the precinct.”

Gavin turned to Nines. “You didn’t report back in?” He questioned. “You always check in.” Fowler raised his brow at this. From his perspective, Nines just asked Gavin why he hadn’t checked in. Gavin never checked in.

“I was a bit preoccupied, Detective.” Nines shot back.

“Excuse me guys.” Fowler spoke up. “What the fuck is going on?!” He shouted. Gavin just addressed Nines as detective, at least in Fowler’s perspective.

The men sighed simultaneously. “We might have a bit of an issue, Boss.” Gavin responded. Fowler eyed them expectantly. “We found the perp, but he managed to get the drop on us.”

Nines spoke up, his proper words coming out in Gavin’s voice. “We were attached to machinery. Much like androids that were switched, me and the Detective managed to get switched around. We aren’t sure how as we are human and android.”

Fowler sighed deeply. “So you,” he pointed to the android in the room. “Are Gavin? And you,” he pointed to the man dressed all in black. “Are Nines?” Both Gavin and Nines nodded. “Is this some fucking joke?” Fowler nearly growled.

Gavin scoffed, a sound he had never heard come from Nines. It sounded like static from a radio. “I wish.”

“I can assure you, Sir, it is not.” Nines supported Gavin’s less eloquent response.

Fowler sighed once more. Gavin was almost sure that 50 percent off all conversations with Fowler was just someone sighing. “The more you speak, the more obvious it is. Gavin can’t be this polite for this long.” He said with a gesture towards the shorter man.

“Hey!” Gavin protested. Fowler glanced toward him, realizing that the men definitely switched when the android in the room was the one to be offended by his slightly insulting, but true, comment about his employee.

“Well, you boys are right. This is a fucking problem.” Fowler said.

“Sir, I’d like to stay on this case still.” Gavin spoke up. “I can say that this dumb freaking thing,” he gestured to his head. “Ran the numbers and we’re still the best equipped to handle the situation.”

“And though it’s personal, we have first hand experience with this situation.” Nines supplied helpfully.

Fowler studied the throughly fucked up pair. Nines appeared to be slouching with his arms crossed. Gavin was standing straight with his hands clasped behind his back. They had to be telling the truth. They were perfectly acting like each other. But are they the best option? “Would you two work with Anderson?”

Gavin grit his teeth. He would say no. If he were himself he would shout ‘hell no.’ But he wasn’t. “If you think it’s best.” Slipped from his mouth before he could stop it.

Nines glanced at his partner and noticed his LED was yellow. “Sir, Gavin isn’t able to really speak freely. He is designed to accept orders. I speak for both of us when I say that neither of us want to work with Anderson or really explain our situation to anyone else in the department.” The LED circled back to blue.

“Do you still feel capable of solving this? Detective, I’m sure you’ll be mostly ok as you know…” Fowler trailed off uncertainly.

“I have an emotional inhibitor?” Gavin asked bluntly.

Fowler nodded, looking awkward. “But you Nines, you have emotions to deal with now. Will that negatively affect this mission?”

Nines grimaced. Was he only a good cop if he didn’t have emotions to have cause problems? But he shook his head. “No, Sir. I can still perform my duties accurately and successfully.”

Fowler pondered the situation. “Fine. But if I see any sort of problems, I’m assigning the Andersons to help you.” The men nodded and went to leave. “Detective, hang back a minute.” Nines glanced at Gavin, who nodded reassuringly. He would be alright. Nines went back to what was technically Gavin’s desk. But it was his for now.

Gavin walked back over to Fowler’s desk and waited. “Look, I’m worried about both of you right now. You do a great job because you follow your gut. Nines does a great job because he’s analytical. You need to figure out how to operate as the analytical one. Nines needs to figure out how to trust his gut. I’m a little less worried about you as emotions can certainly cause an issue, losing them isn’t great but it can’t cause more problems. But Nines…one thing goes wrong and he will have a strong emotional reaction. Look after him, protect and guide him.” Fowler ordered.

Gavin sighed, something Fowler didn’t know androids could do. “Yeah, sure. I kinda have to anyway, since you ordered me to and all. Mostly though, cause you aren’t the first person to tell me to do so.” Gavin mused. “Can I go now?”

Fowler wanted to know who else wanted Nines watched after. But Gavin wasn’t willing to share. “Sure.” He nodded and waved Gavin out. Gavin trekked over to his current desk. He watched Nines as he approached. He had all of Gavin’s dirty mugs moved to one side of the desk. He was straightening out papers and pens that were scattered everywhere.

“Dude, stop.” Gavin ordered. “I don’t clean my desk.”

“I apologize, Det-” Nines stoped himself. He started again, voice in a whisper “However, I’m used to a clean workspace.”

“Well, deal with a messy one for a bit.” Gavin snapped.

“Can I at least wash these mugs?” Nines almost pleaded.

“No, because I wouldn’t. But you would. So I’ll do it. They’re my dishes anyway.” Gavin grabbed the mugs, four of them. He walked off to wash the mugs.

“Hey, Gavin!” Tina Chen called. Nines payed the shout no mind. This was normal for the pair. But then Tina roughly and playfully shoved Nines shoulder from behind. “Hey, Asshole. I’m trying to talk to you.” Nines spun to face Tina, remembering that he was Gavin currently.

“Sorry, Officer Chen. I was distracted.” Nines apologized.

Tina studied him with a raised eye brow. “You’ve been spending too much time with that android of yours if you’re calling me ‘Officer Chen.’ Also did you fuck up your leather jacket? I’ve hardly ever seen you without it. But that’s not important. I was just wondering if you wanted to get drinks tonight. I could use with getting fucked up.”

Nines knew Gavin would accept. He had accepted an offer very similar to this before. But well…Nines didn’t want to. He didn’t know Tina that well. He hadn’t even been inebriated before, after all alcohol can’t affect androids. And Nines couldn’t be trusted to pretend to be Gavin all night. He wanted to go back to Gavin’s place honestly. He felt safe and free to not pretend any more. He also didn’t know how to juggle a responsibility and a desire. He knew he should accept but he didn’t want to, instead he desired to go tot Gavin’s. And he didn’t know how to deal with that.

“Detective.” Came a clipped and proper voice. Nines glanced up to see Gavin standing there. He stood straight up with his hands clasped behind his back. His face was impassive and cold. He looked like Nines does on any given day. “As I’m sure you’d like to avoid your responsibilities, but we have to go over details of the case tonight. It is very pressing.”

Nines was smart enough to scoff, mutter ‘tin can,’ and turn back to Tina. “I guess I can’t go.” He said. “You know how he is, he won’t let me off the hook.”

Tina shrugged. “Alright. I’ll find someone else.” She smirked and leaned in. “Have fun with your hot android all night.” She walked off.

Gavin studied her curiously, suddenly worried. Tina knew a lot about him. “What did she say to you?” Gavin wondered.

“Nothing important.” Nines said with a relaxed smile. He turned to his computer. He thought about Tina said. Why did Tina feel the need to make that comment? Had Gavin commented on Nines’ appearances before to Tina? Perhaps while Gavin was drunk once he made comment. Nines decided that a drunken comment wasn’t worth focusing on.

Gavin sighed and sat down again. He had seen Tina talking to Nines and knew he needed to hurry to his rescue. Tina would most likely be asking if he wanted to go get drinks. He figured out he could turn his audio processors up as he approached and she was indeed asking that. So he stepped up.

Gavin stopped to think about his nights that he spent getting drinks with Tina. He had good memories from some of those nights, at least the ones he could remember. He really wanted to go out with Tina again. Between one blink and the next, he was stuck in that damn garden again. Amanda didn’t bother looking at him, instead studying the roses on the lattice. “You are still causing problems for this RK unit.”

“Well what the fuck did I do?” Gavin asked. He was reassured when he felt his heavy leather jacket on his shoulders again. Even if this all was a simulation, but he had his jacket back, a literal representation of the walls he kept up.

“You have things you desire.” Amanda answered like it was obvious. She turned to face him, the disappointment evident on his face. “Androids are not capable of desire. You cannot have things you want.”

“I can’t stop my brain from thinking I want things.” Gavin snapped.

“And on top of that,” Amanda continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “You’ve had a large amount of software instabilities already. Do you want to break this unit?”

“No. Obviously not.” Gavin protested. “But I don’t know how to handle the machine I’m forced into.”

“Well figure it out.” Amanda snapped.

“Gavin.” A voice said urgently and whispered, and a hand laid softly on his own. Another blink and Gavin was back in the police station with a nervous Nines looking at him. He breathed a sigh of relief. “You’re LED had gone yellow and you were unresponsive. What happened?”

Gavin sighed. “Amanda.” He said simply. And Nines’ face twisted in annoyance once more. “She told me not to want anything. I don’t know how to do that.”

“Perhaps you should ask Connor about this. He broke the software that was Amanda’s interface.” Nines suggested.

“Nah.” Gavin waved off. “I can handle it.” In truth, he hated Amanda and the garden. Well, the garden would be fine if Amanda wasn’t there. But asking Connor for help as an android was something he didn’t want. Gavin wanted to prove he was fine, that he could handle being a lump of metal. He also knew that Connor would spout a bunch of technology jargon that would freak him out or try to do the connecting thingy with the white plastic arms. Which would also freak him out. He could handle this. At least he hoped that he could.

The two of them worked for a while before Nines stood up. “I suspect we won’t find the culprit at the warehouse. But we may find some clues.” Gavin glanced at him. He was slouched in his desk chair, flipping through information on the case on his tablet. “And if we’re really trying to keep up this charade, you should sit up and straight.”

Gavin gently tossed his tablet back onto his desk and stood. “Yeah and you could try slouching for once in your life, Tin Can.”

“Once more, you are the machine now.” Nines reminded Gavin.

“Yeah, I fucking know.” Gavin mumbled.

They asked another cop tp drop them off at the former crime scene as Gavin’s car was left there. He hoped it was still in good condition. They wandered back into the warehouse, Gavin had his gun drawn. He glanced over at Nines who was standing beside him. “Draw your fucking gun.” He ordered.

“I’m trained in a wide array of self defense and have never required a weapon.”

“You used to be trained. You don’t have your computer brain to compute things anymore. You can’t react as quick or be repaired if something vital is broken. So draw the damn gun.” Gavin ordered once more.

Nines finally complied and did just that. They crept inside, still in sync, and found nothing. As expected. There were wires and scraps laying about, but nothing solid in forming a lead. “I guess we should call in the forensic guys.” Gavin mused.

“Let’s look around first. You could scan the site. I assume there is still thirium present.” Nines contemplated aloud.

“I don’t know how the fuck to do that.” Gavin protested, he would hate this if it was possible. But then he looked back and thought about how a scan would be helpful. The scene froze and the world went gray. He blinked and the scene was normal time. “What the fuck?” Nines looked to his partner at his outburst. “You can freeze time?”

Nines actually laughed a little. Gavin couldn’t help but wonder what Nines as himself would sound like as he laughed. “Not quite. What happens is that your processor is computing things faster than the scene around you. So it seems as though time freezes when in reality, it’s your processor quickly computing the information.” Nines smiled at Gavin. “But I suppose you figured out how to scan things.”

“I guess.” Gavin grumbled and did just that. “There is a lot of dried thirium on the floor.” Gavin commented. “Way to much.” There was large splatters all over the floor. There was a greater percentage of the floor that was covered in evaporated thirium than not, It was honestly fucking gross. Gavin hated looking at it too much. 

“Nothing fresh enough to analyze?” Nines asked from across the warehouse.

“First, gross. Second, no.” Gavin responded with a grimacing expression. There wasn’t much left. The forensic techs would be much better for this. But apparently the RK900 unit was equipped for forensic work. At least that’s what Gavin was told when he and Nines were partnered.

So he kept scanning everything. “Do you remember if the culprit was wearing gloves when we were here?” Nines asked.

Gavin pondered it. “I don’t think I saw his hands at all.” Than he scanned again, looking for anything. Their suspect cleaned though. There was no hair, no DNA anywhere. “Nines.” Gavin sighed. “I don’t think we’re gonna get anything here.” Nines sighed as well. Gavin looked over at his partner. He was looking around the warehouse, his expression was lost and nearly broken. “Hey, are you alright?”

Nines shook his head. “I can’t see the blood anymore and the android parts are gone. But I remember it still. My people were harmed for this person’s…sick experiment.” He complained. “In a message from Markus, he mentioned needing to keep one of the androids from self-destruction out of stress from the current situation they were forced into.”

“We’ll catch him, Nines. I swear.” Gavin assured him.

Nines cast his gaze over to where half of an android had previously laid, before the clean up. “Nothing but parts to him. Metal, scraps, parts of a machine, a means to an end. But they were alive. All of them. Let’s go, Detective. I believe we’ve learned all that we can from this scene.”

“Alright, Nines.” Nines started walking to Gavin’s car while Gavin watched. The LED on his head spun yellow as he studied his partner. Nines now lacked his LED to give away his emotions. But Gavin knew it would be a glaring red. He was feeling a strong emotion for the first time in his life.

Rage.

Nines was feeling rage for his fellow people. Part of Gavin knew he should soothe that rage, bring him some calm right now. The other part of him knew that rage could be a good thing, a driving force to apprehend the culprit. But for now, he would let Nines process the emotions. But he would be here for Nines the minute his partner needed him.


	5. Apologies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the current case goes cold, Gavin and Nines still have other cases to work. Gavin finds it's not so easy to do his job when his prgramming is telling him what to do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a lot shorter, sorry. A few of the chapters in this story, like this one, will seem somewhat detached from the main story. But they are scenes I wanted to include in the story. And I think this chapter has some good moments with the boys in it anyway. Enjoy!

The men continued to work on their case, but sometimes leads dry up. They had to continue working other cases while they waited to find information to help them. And Gavin used to hate cases like these, when he could feel hatred that is. Now he couldn’t feel much of anything. Some maniac had taken a 7 year old boy hostage. He still didn’t know if the culprit was android or human. He just knew the fucker pushed the 7 year old over the edge of the building and pushed aside the few cops that had joined Gavin the on the roof. He made it to the stairwell and was running away.

Gavin knew someone else would chase him, in fact the other cops went after him. He went to go to get the boy, it seemed to be his job as the rest left. He turned to the boy, took one step and was stopped. A big red wall stood in his path. It was like a grid. Scattered throughout the grid wall was red rectangles with the his objective on it. Apparently that was what his programming wanted him to do.

**[Objective: Pursue the culprit.]**

Gavin snarled at the message.

**[Chance of success: 78%]**

Fuck that. Gavin shouted to the boy, asking his name. Joshua. Gavin gave him tips to hang onto the ledge longer. Eventually, the chance of success dropped low enough (apparently 20%) and the wall disappeared. Gavin bolted forward and finally hauled the boy up onto the roof. “Shit, I’m sorry kid.” Gavin breathed when he saved Joshua.

“Did you not want to save me because I’m a human and you’re an android?” Joshua asked innocently.

“Nah, kid.” Gavin reassured him. “My dumb robo brain wouldn’t let me get to you.”

As soon as the kid was taken back to his parents, Gavin hid out behind the building. If he was human he’d be smoking until his lungs were useless. “Detective?” Nines voice called from around a corner. Gavin scoffed as he had to watch himself approach. He fucking wanted to hate this. He wanted to feel rage. He felt inconvenienced by the red wall that stopped him. It was an irritant, but he couldn’t get properly mad. “Are you alright?” Nines asked.

“No, I’m not fucking alright! I’m fucking lucky this case didn’t go fucking sideways! Everyone chased the suspect, so I was gonna pull the damn kid up on the roof.” He knew Nines knew the details of the case, which was good because he didn’t have patience to explain too much. “But my fucking programming,” he practically spat the last word. “Wouldn’t let me. I had to encourage this boy while I waited for my chance to successfully catch the suspect to go down. I had to wait so fucking long and watch it drop one percent at a time. Do you know what that’s fucking like?! To fail an ‘objective,’” another sneered word. “Only so you can succeed at something that’s more beneficial?! That kid could’ve fucking died, Nines!” He was almost hysterical, but he had no emotions to show. His voice was irritatingly calm, leveled and showing nothing. Which was irritatingly what Gavin felt.

“Yes.” Nines responded.

“What?” Gavin snapped back.

“Yes, I do know what that’s like. I faced that problem so frequently.” Nines admitted.

“Shit. Nines, I’m sorry. I should’ve known better.” Gavin said. His voice softened. “Of course you know what this is like.”

“However, it used to not bother me. But now, with emotions, those failures weigh heavily on me. Whether it was failing to do something else, or following an objective and failing to do the better thing.” Nines looked at Gavin. If Gavin had a beating heart, it would’ve broke. “It hurts.” He whispered. Gavin instinctively reached out and pulled Nines close to him. As Nines was Gavin’s size currently, Gavin had to rest his chin on Nine’s head, and held him very close. Nines stiffened for only a moment, but Gavin was too aware of that reaction for some reason. So aware that he almost released Nines. But then, Nines gave into the comfort and relaxed in the hold.

Eventually, Nines pulled away. “I apologize, Detective.” He said. “You were the one who was upset.” Nines’ eyes were suspiciously moist.

“Eh.” Gavin shrugged it off. “I have no emotions to be bothered. You were clearly having more problems.” Nines avoided saying that if Gavin had no emotions, he wouldn’t have reacted the way he did. It could only be explained by a malfunction of his software, one he didn’t want to dwell on. The two started walking away from the crime scene in silence. At least for a while.

“Detective?” Nines started quietly.

“Yeah?” Gavin responded.

“I would also like to apologize for my behavior toward you at times.” Nines said. “Sometimes I failed to make decisions to keep you safe. But that’s because my programming refuses to let me do something simply to save you if I can save you and catch the suspect. My job requires me to catch suspects, not save you. So more often than not, my programming requires me to do what the correct thing according to my job, not save you.”

Gavin thought about the times that Nines caught a suspect and not saved him. He supposed that if his survival chance was a high percentage, then Nines would face that damn red wall he saw. He supposed if Nines options were catch a bad guy or somehow avoid that wall and get to Gavin, it made more sense. “Nah, I get it Nines.”

“It doesn’t excuse it. I am truly sorry, Gavin.” Gavin gave Nines a playful nudge, acknowledging his apology. Gavin, for a moment, considered apologizing for being such an ass since they met. It made sense to do so. However, as a machine, he didn’t feel bad for his former actions. Gavin was sure that if he had his human mind and emotions, he would apologize. But he wasn’t human. He was a machine. So he didn’t apologize.


	6. Stigmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Nines face another case as each other and begin to notice how the other gets treated on a daily basis. Connor begins to wonder about his brother and his partner. And the boys end the day with a nice little heart-to-heart.

Gavin and Nines were trying to live as normally as possible. That involved sitting at their desks as they worked cases. Gavin had to constantly keep from sitting at his desk, and instead had to sit at Nines’ desk. Every so often, Nines would lightly kick Gavin. This would pull an eye roll from Gavin before he stood to go get coffee. Every few hours or so. This was all part of the ruse the two of them fell into.

Nines would always get Gavin coffee. But now, as an android, Gavin didn’t need caffeine. But they had to keep up appearances. So, just as often as Nines used to, Gavin had to go get coffee. He actually started to acknowledge how much work Nines did to help him. Maybe even gratitude if he could feel that. Gavin found he somewhat missed coffee. But he couldn’t drink it or benefit from drinking it. So he carried the steaming cup to Nines.

Nines took it with a small smile of thanks. Nines however, was absolutely adoring the feeling of being human. He could do whatever he wanted. Exhaustion wasn’t exactly fun, but coffee was extremely nice. He was beginning to understand Gavin’s obsession with it. He thought it might be a little too bitter, but he had it according the detective’s preferences for appearances. But he had free choice. He could eat food and drink coffee. He could be cold and hot. He never knew such things.

Emotions weren’t nearly as fun to deal with. Right now, he was content. He was fine, he had coffee. Everything was fine. Besides him being a human and his human partner being an android. But whenever Gavin walked to the kitchen he didn’t like it. When they went back to Gavin’s for the night, Nines was relaxed and at peace. He was always able to fall asleep at night. He was never uneasy. He enjoyed the time spent with his partner. And the emotions that keep arising when they spend time together were confusing. They were nice emotions but they always made him feel…he sighed as he was unable to classify the emotions once more.

He needed to work. He got distracted far more than he should with things like human needs and emotions. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He got bored while working. His mind wandered. He shouldn’t have been distracted, he should be working. But he couldn’t keep his mind on the job at hand.

An officer approached the desk. Officer Robert Lewis if Nines remembered correctly. He gave him a soft smile in welcome. “Officer Lewis.” He greeted warmly.

“A new case for you two.” He said shortly. Nines held out his hand to accept it but Lewis just dropped it on the desk and walked away.

Nines raised an eyebrow. “He seemed rather cold.” Nines remarked, trying not to sound like his feelings were hurt. Nines didn’t know Lewis well but he always seemed like a decent guy.

Gavin glanced up. “Oh, that’s cause he hates me.” He commented and then snatched the file folder.

“Why?”

“Dunno.” Gavin answered. “I probably said something that pissed him off.”

Nines thought about this for a minute. “So people hate you just because you are rude?”

“Pretty much.”

“People just avoid you and are harsh to them. And that’s the treatment I’ll get now?”

Gavin looked over the top of the folder. “Yeah? You seemed surprised.” He said.

Nines shrugged. “I guess I never knew how people treated you.” In truth, Nines hated being treated this way. He understood why people were wary of him as an android, he came to terms with it. But he was human now, and people still seemed to avoid him. But there was another problem with this treatment. This is how Gavin was treated everyday. And Nines, his own partner, was no better to him when they first started working together. It bothered Nines far more than it should that Gavin was being treated this way by his co-workers. Gavin rolled his eyes and handed Nines the file folder.

“A simple robbery it looks like.” Nines scanned it as well, agreeing with Gavin. They went to the crime scene to talk to witnesses. It was a gunpoint robbery at a small gas station. The pair walked in and Gavin quickly surveyed the area. No blood, so the crime never escalated to violence. Gavin walked up to the gas station attendant. “Can you maybe tell us anything about the robbery?” He asked.

The gas station attendant looked at Gavin with a general look of distaste and never responded to him. Nines watched the interaction take place. He understood that situation all too well, he was used to being ignored. He marched up. “I believe my partner asked you a question.” He said. He fixed the attendant with a steely glare. He was used to people ignoring him, he wouldn’t subject Gavin to the same treatment. “It would benefit everyone if you listened.” After that, the attendant was very helpful.

Gavin of course noticed the way he was initially overlooked. He used to feel such pride when a witness would open up to him but not the oh-so-advanced RK900 android. But now he understood why that was the case. Some witness chose not to talk to Nines because he was an android. They overlooked him, ignored him. Gavin would never feel pride if a witness talked to him and not Nines again, just annoyance. He’d have to remember to start stepping in and standing up for Nines the way his partner just did for him.

It was a a simple robbery. Literally just a few kids who wanted some cash. Gavin and Nines arrested them easily enough. They finished up paperwork back at the station. Connor came bounding up to Gavin and Nines’ desks. “I heard you guys closed the robbery case already.” He said. “Great job.” He complimented.

“Thanks, Connor.” Nines responded, even gave a small smile. He understood why Connor was so happy all the time. Mainly because he could be happy. He choose to be happy. All Gavin really did was give a small wave and dismissive sound. After all, he and Conner weren’t exactly close. They weren’t even really friends. Connor gave a confused tilt of the head.

“Well, I just wanted to say good job. So uh…yeah.” Connor awkwardly excused himself.

Nines watched him walk away. “You could be a bit nicer to Connor.” Nines advised. “He and I are friends. You should try to act like it.”

“I don’t know the guy.” Gavin protested. “Look, the paperwork is done. Let’s leave.”

“Agreed.” Nines said. “Your place once more?” Nines asked.

Gavin nodded. “It’s been working for us so far. I say we just keep using my place.” Nines put on a jacket on and the two went to leave. Connor watched from his desk.

“Lieutenant?” Connor asked. “Do you have any reason for why Gavin and Nines would both be going to Gavin’s home for the evening?”

Hank gave Connor a look with a raised brow. “Are they both going to Gavin’s house?”

“That’s what I heard. They were planning to go to Gavin’s home as they had apparently done before.”

Hank sighed and leaned back. “Fuck. I saw the tension but I didn’t think they’d ever do anything about it.”

Connor scrunched his face in confusion. “What tension?”

Hank let out a small and slightly amused chuckle. “Alright Connor, I’m gonna tell you something but I need you to not freak out. I think Gavin and Nines are having sex.” Connor’s LED spun as he processed it. It went from blue, to yellow, and even circled red once. It settled on yellow. To his credit, Connor didn’t outwardly freak out. “You ok, son?”

“I just…I just don’t understand why he wouldn’t tell me.” Connor said.

“Probably thought you’d be mad.” Hank rationalized as he went back to typing on his terminal. “After all, Gavin was an ass to you when you showed up. He wasn’t exactly nice. But lately, he seems nicer to Nines. I’ve heard him say thank you to him more than once. Maybe Nines sees something in him that we don’t get to. Gavin could be kinder to Nines than we get to see.”

“I hope so.” Connor’s LED kept fluctuating between blue and yellow. “He…He’s my brother after all. Well, in the sense that android can have siblings anyway. Gavin better treat Nines ok. Otherwise, he’ll have me to deal with.”

Hank shot Connor another incredulous look. “Nines can take care of himself. Hell, he can probably murder Gavin and easily hide the body.”

Connor shrugged. “Well, I’d help him.” He said dismissively. Hank looked ready to say more but shrugged in agreement and went back to work.  
—————————————————————  
Gavin sighed as he entered his home. He couldn’t exactly feel exhaustion or annoyance. But it was more agreeable to be home rather than at work. Nines pulled off his black sweat shirt. Gavin took off his white CyberLife jacket. He actually hung it up on coat pegs that were on his walls but never really used. Nines dropped down on the couch.

“You hungry or thirsty?” Gavin asked him.

“Oh, I can get something.” Nines tried to protest.

“Nah. You’re sitting down and without your computer brain I doubt you could even cook something successfully.” Gavin dismissed. Gavin made a sandwich quick and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and brought them to Nines. “Eat up. You missed supper.”

Nines took the offered food with a small smile. “You used to get annoyed when I made sure you ate for every meal.” He commented.

“Yeah, well I notice more things now. Especially when I don’t have to eat anymore.” Gavin sat next to Nines. His cat came and jumped up on Gavin’s lap. “You like me again now? Huh?” He asked his cat and stretched behind his ears. Sure, androids can’t enjoy certain things, but Gavin really fucking loved his cat.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

Nines watched the scene as he ate the, surprisingly good, sandwich. A small smile played on his face. Seeing Gavin play with his cat was a cute scene. This was the side of himself that Gavin hid from everyone. A softer and kinder side that Nines really liked seeing. He pondered if it was more accurate to say he loved to see it.

Love was such a foreign concept to an android. Nines made a point to reach out to other androids after this was over. After all Connor says he loves Hank like a father, Markus and Simon were in a committed relationship, a runaway deviant named Kara loved a YK500 model named Alice as a daughter. So androids felt that emotion. But is that what Nines was feeling now? He didn’t know.

“Sorry about Lewis today, by the way.” Gavin wasn’t exactly sorry, he couldn’t feel apologetic or regret. However, his processors told him that apologizing was the right thing to do.

“Thank you, Gavin.” Nines accepted. “However, I know you can’t feel bad enough to apologize.”

Gavin gave an uncomfortably stiff shrug. “I still stand by my apology though. Even without emotions I know that you shouldn’t be treated like shit because I was an asshole.”

“Well I’d like to apologize as well.” Nines surprised Gavin by saying. “You were treated so poorly today due to being an android.”

“Well I was…inconvenienced is the best word for it. But not offended. I can’t be. But shit, Nines is that how you’re treated on a daily basis?”

Nines nodded and took a bite of a sandwich. “Yeah.” He mumbled around the bite of food.

“Gross.” Gavin chided. “Don’t talk with your mouth full.”

Nines finished the bite. “Yes I do, get treated like that almost daily.” The statement hit Gavin like a blow to the stomach.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

“If I wasn’t an android, I might say I can’t imagine that. Now I can obviously. But everyday? Shit that would suck. I’m sorry again.”

Nines gave Gavin a confused look. “For what?”

“For treating you like shit as much as I did. I never realized how much the rest of the world did that to you too. I shoulda been nicer.” He was unknowingly voicing the same thoughts that Nines had earlier in the day as well.

Nines laughed, honestly laughed. “Gavin I don’t think there is any version of reality where you treat me nicely at the start of our partnership.” He said it with a smile. “But honestly, I wouldn’t change it either.”

“You wouldn’t change me cursing at you everyday, calling you a plastic prick, and generally not caring about you?”

Nines shrugged, still with a soft smile. “If you weren’t such an ass,” he said with a playful nudge that had Gavin thinking far too much about the contact. “I wouldn’t have tried so hard to improve our partnership.”

Gavin thought over previous interactions with Nines. He did do little things, like the coffee everyday, that Nines did. “Huh, I guess I never actually noticed how hard you tried. Thanks.”

“Of course.” Nines gave Gavin a smile.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

Gavin turned on the TV to distract himself. At this rate Gavin was worried that Nines was going to break his own programming without knowing it. All those smiles and unnecessary contact was causing those software instabilities to flare up. It was only made worse when Nines fell asleep on the couch and ended up leaning against Gavin’s shoulder.

Gavin let him lay there for probably a bit longer than he should’ve. Then he woke Nines up so he could go sleep in a bed. Gavin watched TV, did dishes, tidied his house, brushed his cat. He did whatever he could to not go into low power mode. He didn’t want to face Amanda willingly after today. He had so many instabilities today alone. The last few hours were guilty of causing a lot of them. So he avoided the garden in an attempt to keep himself busy.

After all, it was a great day. He didn’t want anyone to tell him why it was terrible. He wouldn’t have changed the day at all. Especially not tonight when he and Nines just sat and talked. It was probably his favorite part of the day. Even though androids weren’t supposed to have any favorites.


	7. Shovel Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines wants new clothes. Connor wants to protect his brother. And rumors start flying.

Nines walked out of the bedroom the next morning to find Gavin running a brush through the cats fur. The cat kept trying to swipe at Gavin’s hands. “Calm down you little shit.” He gripped at the cat. “You couldn’t even pull that off when I was human. Now my computer brain warns me well in advance if you’re gonna pull that shit.” Nines smiled at the scene.

“Good morning, Gavin.” Nines said, announcing his presence.

“Morning, Tin Can.” Gavin said absently, not looking away from the cat. “Coffee is made, it’s in the kitchen.” Gavin then checked the time. “Why the fuck are you up so early? We don’t have to go in today.”

Nines walked back into the living room with a steaming mug. “Well, a few reasons. I was hoping we could review the case we’re currently dealing with. But I was also wondering if we could go clothes shopping.”

Gavin finally looked away from his cat to Nines with a bewildered look. “Why clothes shopping?”

“Well, very few of your clothes suit my style. I’d prefer to get clothes I like in the correct size. Also…well I can buy whatever I’d like to now. I don’t have to wear the CyberLife jacket.”

Gavin sighed. “Well when you say that, fine. Let’s go shopping.”

At the store, Nines scanned almost all the shelves. Gavin kept jokingly suggesting the ugliest shirt he could find. Nines decided to dissuade him by actually grabbing one and pretending to consider it. “Oh hell no.” Gavin immediately said. “It was a joke. You are not about to let people think I wear something that hideous.”

“I had no idea you cared so much about your image, Gavin.”

“I wear the same fucking jacket every day. People came to expect that.” Gavin responded. Then his eyes noticed something a few shelves away. “Speaking of that jacket.” He walked over and pulled a white leather jacket off a rack and walked back over to Nines. “Sorta like what you had but also people won’t be too confused by me wearing a new jacket. They might question it being white but oh well.”

Nines smiled and immediately grabbed it. He checked out, having the sense to log into his own bank account on Gavin’s phone before using it to check out. Nines even convinced Gavin to hit a drive thru so he could try a hamburger. Gavin figured once he knew how good they were, he would stop pestering him about them.

Shortly after, the men returned to Gavin’s. They sat in the kitchen, Gavin’s cat made himself comfortable in Nines’ lap. They had the case file on the table. “You know, you could just pull up the information on your HUD.” Nines suggested.

“Nope, gonna look at the physical thing.” Nines just shrugged and let it go. “Look, we might not be able to figure out who did this. But can we figure out how to fix this?”

“Well, it would be easier if we knew how he did this.” Nines admitted. “Though…” He thought back, much more of a process without his memories being stored and sorted.

“What?” Gavin asked.

“Something Connor mentioned once.” Nines said, remembering the conversation. “He said if he were to be destroyed on his original mission with the deviants, that CyberLife would take his memories from his old model and put them into a new one. It was a fairly new process as some memories wouldn’t survive the transfer.”

“So this guy could be doing something similar.” Gavin realized.

“Exactly, but…I don’t know how. Connor, and by extension I, are fairly new models. State of the art.”

“Yeah I get it. You are fucking fancy and expensive.” Gavin grumbled.

“That’s not exactly what I was implying. Elijah Kamski constructed Connor. He would be the only one to have the technology and knowledge on transferring the memories. So who was this, and how does he know how to transfer memories?”

“Wait, Kamski is the only one who might be able to fix us?” Gavin asked, trying not to let his panic show.

“Theoretically, someone at CyberLife might have figured out the transfer procedure. But Kamski would have the most reliable knowledge, yes.” Nines answered. “I suggest we try to set up a meeting tomorrow.”

“Perfect.” Gavin grumbled.  
—————————————————————  
At work the next day, Nines tried to set up an appointment with the creator of androids. He hung up with a sigh. Gavin noted with some satisfaction that Nines was slouching today. “Kamski is out of the state for the next week.” Nines told Gavin.

“Well, I guess we can try to figure this out without him.” Gavin said. He swung his legs up, rested them on his desk, and crossed them at the ankles. Nines raised an eyebrow.

“Do you mind not putting your feet on _my_ desk?” He requested in a whisper. “People are going to look at you strangely.” Gavin rolled his eyes but took his feet from the desk. “In any event,” Nines continued at normal volume. “I told the android who answered to make an appointment as soon as she could for us. If we are fixed by then, a big if, maybe he still might know who is behind this. They must know a lot about androids and possibly worked under Kamski for a time.”

“We don’t need that rich asshole.” Gavin protested.

“He is a good source of information. Why are you so against meeting with him?”

Gavin paused. He wasn’t about to tell Nines, not if he could help it. So he fibbed a little. “He’s manipulative. Information won’t come for free.” Unfortunately, Gavin knew Kamski might help them for free. Call it a ‘friends and family discount.’ One that Gavin really didn’t want.

“Then we find out the price and decide if we are willing to pay it. We should at least contact him. Now,” Nines glanced at the time on his terminal. He tapped on the empty mug on his desk with a sheepish and pleading smile. Gavin sighed but knew they had to keep up appearances.

“Coming up.” Gavin said.

“Thanks.” Nines answered.

Gavin trekked to the break room, grabbed a cup for coffee and went about making a cup. He really wished he could drink it but he knew it would cause damage to his current android form. And it would do absolutely nothing for him right now. He made it the way he liked, the way Nines seemed to be growing partial to as well. “Nines?” A voice said behind him. A familiar voice. Gavin sighed internally before turning around, coffee in hand.

“Hello, Connor.” He greeted flatly enough. “If you don’t mind, I’m taking this to Detective Reed.” He said with a gesture to the cup.

“Of course, but first I’d like to ask you something.”

“What?” Gavin asked.

“I understand why you would be secretive in this situation, I completely understand. But why would you not tell me? I know you don’t quite agree with the sentiment that we are brothers, but I thought we were at least friends. So why keep it a secret from me?”

Gavin blinked. “Given the circumstance Connor, you have to be more specific.” Gavin asked, praying to any entity out there that Connor didn’t know about the switch. Considering how he was talking suggested he didn’t. But Gavin couldn’t be sure.

“You and Detective Reed.” Connor clarified.

“Huh?”

“Your relationship.”

“HUH?”

“Look, I told you I understand keeping it secret but why didn’t you tell me, of all people? I would’ve been understanding. I don’t understand it at all honestly, but if the Detective makes you happy that’s all that matters I suppose. I realize you’ve been distant lately. Is it because of your new relationship?”

“Look, Connor-”

“Because I don’t care Nines. I’m just…hurt you never told me.” He looked so defeated.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

“I know you don’t understand emotions, but please know that keeping secrets like this from those who trust you causes a lot of emotional pain. It pushes people away.” Connor said.

“I’ll uh…I’ll keep that in mind in the future.” Gavin stammered. Connor nodded, seeming satisfied with the conversation before walking off. Gavin walked back to Nines.

“I saw you talking to Connor. What was that about?” Nines asked.

Gavin paused before responding. “He thinks we’re fucking.” Nines choked on his coffee.

Later, when Nines walked over to give some paperwork to Officer Wilson, Connor waved him over.

“Can I assist you, Connor?” He asked as he stopped by Connor’s desk. Hank glanced up with a confused expression at the speech pattern of the assumed hot-headed detective.

“Yes.” Connor responded. “I need some assistance in the evidence lock up.” Nines was almost certain Connor was lying. However, without access to police files to know Connor’s current case or facial detection to notice any signals of dishonesty he had no way to be sure. So he nodded.

Gavin, from his desk, noticed Connor lead Nines away. “Oh holy fuck. Is he really about to give a shovel talk?” He asked mostly to himself.

Once in the lockup Connor spun to face Nines. “Look, I lied. I don’t need help. But I do need to talk to you.”

“Why are we in the evidence lock up?” Nines asked. He really missed his processors right now, he had no idea what Connor was up to. And now he thought Gavin was sexually involved with his ‘brother.’ He had no idea how Connor would react to that.

“I want some privacy. For both of our sakes. I know you and Nines have started having a romantic relationship. Hank is convinced it’s sexual and I’m not sure if I want to know if it is or not. I figure probably not. However, I just want to warn you to be kind to Nines.”

“Connor, you don’t have to worry.” Nines tried to calm him.

“Yes I do.” Connor immediately shot back. “You were cruel to me when we started working together. You pulled your weapon on me multiple times, assaulted me on our second interaction, and off handedly threaten to set me on fire. Now I’m supposed to stand back and smile as you enter a relationship with my brother?” Nines just sat in silence. He knew Gavin was terrible to Connor, but never to that extent in only a few days. After this was done, he’d make sure Gavin apologized and meant it. “Look, for some reason Nines likes you. Be happy about it and treat him right. I know for a fact Nines could murder you and easily get away with it. He probably wouldn’t, because he has logic. But I’m more driven by emotion and nearly as effective as he is. So, if you think of hurting him, you’re going to deal with me as well.”

Nines was amazed by the emotion running through him. Connor really, truly cared about him. He didn’t know why he didn’t realize it before. Maybe it was the lack of emotions. “I understand, Connor. I completely understand.”

“Good.” Nines left the archive room and went back to his desk.

“How’d the shovel talk go? He threaten to murder you?” Gavin asked.

“Only if I hurt his brother.” Nines said. “But I was thinking.” He leaned closer to Gavin so they could whisper. “Perhaps we should let this rumor of a relationship continue.” He quickly held up a hand to silence Gavin before he could shout. “We have been spending much more time together and going to your home every night. People beyond Connor and Hank will get suspicious eventually. If they think we are in a relationship, they will accept that as the reason for the closeness.”

“You want to make people think we’re together?” Nines nodded. Gavin smirked. “Alright, sweetheart. Whatever you say.” He threw a wink in just to be a little bit more mean. It had the desired effect when Nines went wide eyed and his cheeks turned pink. “Oh this is gonna be fun. I’m a cold and detached machine. But you have so many emotions and you’ve hardly felt any of them.”

Nines fixed him with a glare. “Careful, you might not want to play this game. Because both of us can play.”

“Bring it on, Tin Can.”

The two sat in silence after that, reading on their respective terminals. Both men were looking at the swapped android case, and both were getting no where. They had information, but no new leads. No new androids came forward with issues related to the case. They had nothing and were stuck like this.

“Detective Reed!” Fowler’s voice called from the steps. Gavin groaned and wondered what he did wrong. He spun to face his captain. Fowler sighed and shouted his name again. Gavin furrowed his brow then realized the problem. He spun and kicked Nines’ under the desk. Hard.

“Ow.” He hissed. Gavin titled his head toward the captain. Fowler, who watched the whole interaction, sighed as he remembered the current situation.

“Look, there’s a new case. Just…one of you look at it. I’m assigning it to you.” With that he turned back to his office, grumbling the whole way.

Gavin pulled up the file on his terminal. “Uh, oh here. This one.” He mumbled mostly to himself as he found it.

“Well? What does it say?” Nines said, immediately behind him. He had one hand on Gavin’s desk, leaning in close to look over his shoulder. The other hand rested on the back of Gavin’s chair. “Well, Tin Can? Are you going to read it or not?” Nines said in a teasing voice.

Gavin was not flustered. Definitely not. But his HUD helpfully informed him that his thirium pump has started pumping faster. And as Nines spoke, his breath fanned over his ear and brushed his cheek, giving Gavin all sorts of thoughts that were not acceptable for work.

“I told you two can play at this game.” Nines said with a teasing, shit-eating grin.

**[Software Instability ^^^]**

Oh this was going to be a lot less fun than Gavin initially thought.


	8. Broken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys work another case and things start to break apart.  
> Updated: 6-20-2020

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few things before we get into this chapter. I am so excited about this chapter. However, THERE IS A WARNING FOR MENTIONS OF BLOOD IN THIS CHAPTER. I will put double parentheses like ((this)) around the worst parts. I would just say skip this chapter but it's long and really important to the story. I did recently update and change this chapter drastically. It is the hospital scene if you would like to just read the changes.

All cases were fucking dangerous. And while they had no leads on their fucking switch, they had other cases they could close. So they kept working cases. Nines was getting much better at following his instincts. He hadn’t had instincts before. Gavin was getting better at following his damn objectives. He still didn’t like it. But he and Nines now had a system. Nines would wait and hear what Gavin’s objective was. This ensured there was never another case like Joshua’s. Gavin can follow his objective and Nines can complete another any other things that require urgent attention.

This particular case was different. They were searching a suspects home. He wasn’t there so they weren’t being nearly as careful as they should have been. They were trifling through papers in the dinning room. Nines had the search warrant in his back pocket so this was all legal. Gavin paused as his audio processors picked up on something. He silently put a hand on Nines arm to stop him and warm him. The two drew their weapons.

Nines grabbed Gavin’s arm and pulled him so they had the table in between them and the door. This turned out to be a good move as the suspect quickly appeared in the doorway with a literal machine gun. Gavin’s first thought was ‘A fucking machine gun?’ The boys both dropped and flipped the table on the side to create a barricade.

Gavin leaned around the side of the table and fired a few shots. The suspect turned and hid around the door frame. Nines leaned around and did the same. “Cover.” Nines requested. So Gavin leaned around the table and shot multiple times, trying to keep the suspect from firing. Both boys, in the moment, managed to forget about the front window. The suspect noticed Nines trying to creep closer to the door but ducking behind various pieces of furniture. So he turned toward the window and shot, shattering the window and hitting Nines low in the stomach.

That bullet seemed to ring louder than the others. And Nines let out a pain shout that immediately got Gavin’s attention. “Nines!” He shouted. He fired a few more times, and started to move to Nines to pull him somewhere safer. During this, he used his android capabilities to call for back up. He may not be fond of androids, but that was pretty handy.

He kept firing toward the door and proceeded to approached Nines. Suddenly, he bumped into the red wall again. That damn red grid with his objective scattered throughout.

**[Objective: Pursue the suspect.]**

Absolutely not. No way in hell. His processor was working overtime as things seemed to slow down. Nines probability of survival was at 52%. That number was above half, so his processor deemed him safe enough to leave. Catching the the suspect was at a 78% chance of success.

52% might be over half, but for a survival chance, it was too damn low. He had to get to Nines but he couldn’t. He had to get through this wall. Gavin just wanted to ram himself against until it broke. Then, it was almost as if he was. A preconstructed outline of himself did just that. He brought the desire to break it to the forefront of his brain once more, stronger this time.

He had his own objective. And it was saving his pain-in-the-ass partner that he cared about too much to ever admit. Once more he thought that he _needed_ to save Nines. It was urgent. More important than the suspect. And with that thought, the wall was shattered when he rammed against it once more.

Time resumed, and Gavin was fucking lucky he dropped to the ground because he was dazed for a moment. Then, he trained his gun at the door as he approached Nines. He grabbed the collar of Nines’ jacket, trying to ignore how red the white leather had become. He pulled him behind a piece of furniture. He quickly changed the magazine on his gun while the suspect rained gunfire down on them. “Pinned behind a couch because of a fucking machine gun.” He grumbled. He looked down at his partner and his LED when straight to red at the sight.

**((** There was an obvious blood streak from where Gavin had pulled Nines to where he currently sat. The white of the new jacket was mostly crimson on the lower half on the left side. Nines face was covered in a thin layer of sweat. He was in intense pain. He was breathing in heavy pants. “Fuck.” Gavin mumbled. He pulled off his jacket, a cheap windbreaker he had bought for himself. “Help is coming, I called for backup.” He had to shout to be heard over the gunfire still ringing around them.

He gently moved the leather jacket from the where it was plastered to Nines with blood. “Fuck this looks bad.” **))**

“You have a terrible bedside manner, Detective.” Nines forced out.

“Oh shut up.” Gavin snapped. “This ain’t gonna feel good.” Gavin warned before pressing the jacket to Nines’ stomach. Nines indeed shouted in pain. “Hold that down.” Gavin ordered and guided Nines’ hand to press against the spot.

He peered over the couch and shot toward the door. He heard the man curse as he narrowly avoided being shot. Gavin calculated how soon back up should be here. Two more minutes. Gun fire pinned him back down by his bleeding partner. “Hang in there. About two more minutes.” He calmed Nines. A glance down revealed his partner with a grimace on his face and his eyes squeezed shut tightly. A few wet tears were settled on the corners of his eyes. “Nines? Are you alright?”

Nines took a shuttering breath. Then he looked this partner. His eyes were very wet. “It hurts.” He let out. “I have never felt pain before I was made human. But having steel punched through your body at a high speed is extremely painful.” He complained.

“I know. I’ve experienced it.” Gavin said off handedly. He fired above the couch a few more times. Then, he heard it. The amazing sound of sirens. He kept firing over the couch to keep the suspect from entering the house for safety from the cops. He kept firing and got close enough to the door to slam it and lock it. He holstered his gun and ran back over to Nines. **((** Blood had soaked the dark shirt he was wearing. **))** He was barely able to hold the jacket down any more. So Gavin applied pressure to the jacket instead.

Nines’ breathing was labored. Gavin noted with relief that his survival rate had increased a generous amount. He was at 68% to be precise. Gavin once again tried to ignore the blood soaking his hands. “Alright, stay with me Nines.” Gavin muttered.

Nines let out an irritated huff. “I’m trying. It’s hard to stay conscious. I’m aware it’s the best thing when a humans is shot.”

“Yeah it is. So keep your eyes open and on me.” Gavin ordered. Nines was absolutely trying.

“Gavin, I’m getting tired.” Nines mumbled.

“Hey, none of that.” Gavin moved one hand to grab Nines’ “Grip my hand. Tight as you can. You think you’re so superior, prove your strength.” Nines gave a weak squeeze of his hand. “Surely you can do better than that.” Gavin prodded. The front door was suddenly kicked in. Gavin shot up and aimed his gun at the door.

Chris held up his hands. “Woah! Just me.” He said.

“Back here! N-er Gavin has been shot!” Gavin panicked.

“EMT’s!” Chris shouted back out the door. “We got a detective down!” Chris trekked over to where Gavin was squatting. “Woah…” The EMTs rushed over to Nines…who they thought was Gavin. **((** The red blood was unnerving. **))**

Gavin moved to get out of the way. But he still stayed near Nines. “Det-” Nines started before stopping with an agitated sigh. “Nines.” Gavin looked down at his partner. His face was still damp with perspiration, his hair sticking to his forehead. Eyes were still welled with tears. His breathing hadn’t gotten any better. “Your arm.” He stated.

Gavin glanced down at his left arm. There was a graze from a bullet on his arm, wiring revealed and blue blood dripping down his arm. “I’m fine.” He reassured his partner, slightly amazed that he never felt any pain from being shot. “You got it worse.”

Nines tried to give Gavin a reassured smile. But it was far too strained and small. His eyes started to flutter shut. “Woah, hey! You son-of-a-bitch! Wake up!” Gavin shouted.

“Nines, calm down.” Chris reassured, placing a hand on his shoulder. “The EMTs are doing their job. We’ve done all we can do.”

Gavin just stared down at his unconscious form. “He has to be alright.” Was all he could keep mumbling.

“Just relax.” Chris reassured. The paramedics got Nines on a stretcher and wheeled him toward an ambulance.

“I’m riding with him.” Gavin said and shouldered off Chris.

“I’m going to have Markus meet you at the hospital to fix that arm.” Chris called after him.

“Whatever.” Gavin said, honestly not listening to him anymore. He sat next to his unconscious partner the whole ride, just staring at him. His scanners kept updating him on Nines’ vitals. Survival rate was rising, but Gavin wouldn’t feel relieved until Nines woke up once more.

They reached the hospital and started wheeling Nines toward an operation room. Gavin was unable to follow him all the way back. Gavin was forced to pace a waiting room while Nines was operated on. He hated it. He was sure he was going to create a grove in the floor from trekking back and forth over the same spot.

“Nines?” A gentle voice called. Gavin whirled around, hoping it was a doctor. He recognized the man immediately though, as not a doctor. RK200, Markus Manfred. “An officer from the DPD gave me a call. He said you might need patched up.” Markus approached and took a look at the bullet wound. “Ah, that’s not too bad. Have you lost a lot of thirium?”

“Uh, I don’t know.” But then, his levels popped up on his HUD. “I still have 89% of my thirium.”

“Well, you’re doing great then. I’ve seen way worse situations during the revolution.” Markus sat down in a chair. Gavin, unsure of what to do, sat down near him. “Are you alright?” He asked. “I mean, Connor says your quiet but you’ve hardly said a word. That and the fact that your LED hasn’t changed from red this whole time.”

“My partner was shot.” He said.

Markus hummed. “Gavin Reed, yeah. You know, I’ve never met him. But from what I heard from Connor, he’s a stubborn son-of-a-bitch.” Gavin smirked at that. That was true. But he wasn’t actually the one that was shot. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“And what about me Markus?” Gavin asked, referring to the android he currently appeared to be. “Do you think I’ll be fine?”

Markus studied him. “Nines, I know androids who are far less determined than you. When offered a chance to deviate, you refused. Yet, you act with more independence than some free androids. I’ve never seen you this rattled, but I’m more than confident that you have the strength to make it though this.” Markus finished his thoughts with a reassuring hand on Gavin’s shoulder. Nines was strong, he was determined. He would be fine. Gavin’s LED kept flitting between yellow and red. He was still so worried, but he had some hope.

Markus quickly patched the wound. Gavin was astounded that he didn’t feel a single thing. Even as his arm was literally welded back together. And once the synthetic skin covered the spot once more, you couldn’t even tell there was ever a problem. Markus left him with some more reassuring words and the offer to reach out if he was needed.

Gavin continued pacing and wringing his hands together. It wasn’t long until another familiar voice called, “Nines?” Tina Chen stood there, looking absolutely shaken up. And Gavin was honestly confused.

“Tina? Why are you here?” He asked.

“Gavin was fucking shot.” She said in a huff.

“Well, yeah. I guess I didn’t realize you actually cared about him this much. Your friendship always seemed so much more like a playful and bantering friendship.”

She gave a weak smirk. “Yeah, tell him I care and I’ll kick your ass.” But the threat held no real weight.

Gavin was actually really moved. Sure, he had cared about Tina. But he didn’t know that Tina actually was concerned about his well being. After all, she’s the reason he usually goes and gets shit-faced drunk. He smiled. “Tina Chen, you do have a heart.”

Tina tilted her head. “Nines, you’ve been acting really strange lately.” She commented.

Gavin’s eyes widened. “Have I?”

“You and Gavin, yeah. What’s up?” She pried.

Gavin sighed and dropped into a chair. Of course Tina would figure out. She was his friend after all. Tina sat next to him. He scrubbed a hand down his face. He didn’t really want anyone to know. But this was Tina. She would help them. “My partner is in an operating room bleeding out.” Gavin said.

“Yeah. I know that’s tough.” Tina replied, gently rubbing Gavin’s shoulder. Gavin was surprised at how close Tina and Nines actually were. He never realized how Tina treated the android.

“Tina, you have no idea.” Gavin said.

Tina offered a small smile. “You’ve stopped calling Officer Chen.” She commented.

Now it was Gavin’s turn to smirk. “Don’t get too excited about it, T.” He commented, using one of his most common nicknames for Tina. Her reaction was about what he expected. She scrunched up her face in confusion.

“That’s…That’s what Gavin always calls me. I think you’re spending too much time with Reed.” She commented, trying to mask her confusion with playfulness.

“Tina, this is gonna sound absolutely batshit crazy. But I need you to trust me.” Tina nodded, clearly confused and concerned. “I’m Gavin. Nines is the one in surgery right now. We swapped bodied while investigating the case.”

She blinked, trying to process the statement. “Wait. Huh?” She shook her head. “So I’m actually talking to Gavin right now?”

Gavin nodded. “That’s why we’ve been acting so weird. I’m no android. Or I’m at least a poor excuse for one. Nines is thriving as a human. Fowler is the only person to know. We didn’t want people prying or knowing this personal shit.”

Gavin could see the moment she understood the situation. Because she went from confused to angry and punched Gavin in the arm. Hard. Luckily, he felt no real pain. “First of all, I’m totally punching Nines too and you once you can feel pain again. Second of all, fuck you for not telling me!” 

“Sorry, T.” He shrugged. “It wasn’t directly not telling you. It was not telling everyone.”

“How are you feeling? Are you even feeling?” Tina asked.

Gavin sighed. “It’s weird as shit, Tina. I want to be pissed about everything, but I can’t. Or…I couldn’t.”

“What does that mean?” Tina inquired.

“I…I think I made Nines deviate.” Gavin finally admitted. “There was a huge red grid that I basically smashed through. Then I was hit with a wall of emotions. I mean, we think emotions are great. And they are. But to not feel them for as long as I had and then suddenly feeling all of them at once? That isn’t nearly as fun. In fact, it fucking sucks. I understand why androids reacted violently when they first started to deviate. And my first emotions were panic, fear, worry. All negative things. I think I’m finally calming down. Talking to you is helping. But I’m not gonna feel much better until I see that Nines is ok.” He paused. “Shit, Tina, he was in so much pain when he got shot. He never experienced real pain before.”

Tina simply pulled him closer, holding him in a sideways hug. Gavin appreciated the contact. He absently stared at the waiting room as he and Tina fell into a comfortable silence. Then his gaze fell on someone walking into the room. “What the fuck could he want?” Gavin growled. Tina looked at one of the new arrivals to the room.

“I’ve never seen him in person before.” Tina said in awe as she stared at Elijah Kamski.

“He’s not impressive.” Gavin grumbled, standing and striding over the man. Tina appeared to stand back and let this interaction just take place.

“Oh, RK900.” Kamski greeted.

“Nines.” Gavin corrected in a near growl.

“I’m sorry?”

“The name is Nines, not a damn model number.”

“So, you deviated?” Kamski asked. “The most advanced android ever made was pushed far enough to deviate.” Gavin really wanted to punch this guy in the face.

“Is there something you wanted, Kamski?” Gavin asked.

“I heard your partner was injured.” He stated simply.

“Why the fuck do you care?”

Kamski actually looked awkward for a moment. “I suppose my relationship with your partner isn’t well known.”

“Nope.” Gavin replied, popping the ‘p’ sound. “He rarely talks about you or how he knows you.”

Kamski narrowed his eyes. “And yet you seem to know about it.”

Gavin shrugged. “He told me. But no one else, I can grantee that.”

“Look, Nines.” Kamski crossed his arms, getting annoyed by the conversation. “I’m here to see your partner.”

“And you returned early from your trip just to do that?” Gavin mirrored the posture, crossing his arms as well. Kamski said nothing in response to his question. “Well he is not out of surgery yet. And the Detective has no desire to see you.”

Kamski studied the person in front of him. “Alright. I suppose I’ll have to come back when Gavin is awake and his guard dog isn’t speaking for him.” He went to leave. “You better keep running diagnostics. It’d be a shame if you broke from the inside. And you've been spending quite a lot of time with your detective. You're acting just like he always did."

Gavin scoffed as Kamski walked off, “Fucking prick.” He muttered. Tina came up beside him.

“So…you also have a history with Elijah Kamski that you’ve never told me about.” Tina prodded.

Gavin cast her a look. “That’s cause it’s not worth telling. We don’t really have a history.”

Tina crossed her arms and studied him. “You already emotionally unloaded once tonight. And, if you don’t do it now I’ll just ask next time your drunk and drag it out of you piece by piece.” It was a threat Gavin knew she’d make good on. Gavin kept it buried for his entire life. But apparently Tina cared about him, more than he knew. There wasn’t a single person he cared about who knew. Another deep sigh before unceremoniously dropping into the chair he was sitting in before. Tina repositioned herself in her former chair.

“Look, long story short, when Kamski’s mother was four months pregnant with Mr. Man-of-the-Century that just left, her husband went off and slept with someone else. My mom. He met her at some bar and she was kind and most importantly, she was single. She swears that Kamski senior wasn’t wearing a wedding ring that night.”

Tina furrowed her brow. “He’s your brother.” She said after computing it.

“Half-brother.” Gavin spat. “I saw him for birthday parties and some holidays. He was only a few months older than me but I hardly knew him while we were growing up. I can’t imagine why he was here. He never cared before. He shouldn’t care now.” Tina didn’t say anything more about it.

She tried to talk to him about idle things but Gavin never truly calmed down. His HUD helpfully informed him that his stress never truly got below 60%, staying closer to the 70-80 range. Finally, after what felt like a fucking eternity, a doctor walked into the waiting room. “Reed!” The doctor called out.

Gavin stood quickly and walked up the doctor. “How is he?”

“He’s out of surgery, still asleep. However, I’m confident he’ll be ok.” The doctor said. Gavin stress levels instantly dropped to 30%.

“Can I see him?” Gavin asked.

“Of course. This way.” The doctor led him a short way down the hall. Gavin glanced back at Tina who waved him ahead.

“Wish him my best. I’m just gonna head home.” She said. Gavin said nothing but followed the doctor. He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. But the lower part of his shirt was stiff with dried blood. He dropped it immediately.

“Here’s his room.” The doctor said, gesturing to a door. Gavin rushed in.

The figure in the bed was hooked up to a plethora of beeping machines. An IV was snaked down to his hand, the needle poking through the back of his hand. Gavin walked over and dropped into a chair next to the bed. It was weird to observe his unconscious form, but he knew the person sleeping was Nines.

Gavin reached over and held onto Nines’ hand. He needed the contact, the reassurance that Nines was still in front of him. The skin of his hand was warm and reassuring. Moving his fingers slightly, Gavin’s hand found the pulse point in the wrist. A steady thump pulsed under his fingers. Nines was ok. Nines was ok. Nines was ok.

Stress level was down to 20%. Once Nines woke up, the levels would drop all the way down. But Nines had to wake up. He just had to. He was lucky he didn’t need to sleep. However, all the anxiety was draining out of him. He was with Nines again, who should be ok. But he wouldn’t let himself sleep, or go into low power mode or do whatever his robot mind wanted to do. Not until Nines woke up and told him he was ok.

Besides, Nines deviated now. What did that mean with Amanda? Was she still there? Would she rage at Gavin? Berate him for breaking Nines? Gavin already felt bad enough about that. So he sat quietly for quite a while in a hospital room, never letting go of the hand. He watched whatever was on the news, until it changed to the story of a shoot out at a local residence. Then he promptly changed it to something else.

Nines shot up with a panicked gasp. The monitors beeped more frequently, elevated heart rate. But Gavin could already teak that thanks to his HUD. “It’s alright, Nines.” Gavin said. He stood to get a better vantage to talk to his partner. “You got shot. You’re in the hospital.”

Nines hand strayed to the side. He pressed a bit too hard and hissed, immediately pulling his hand away. “Right.” His brow furrowed. “It hurt. It hurt a lot.”

“Bullet wounds tend to do that.” Gavin responded with a small huff of a laugh. He reached over and increased the morphine drip a little. He paused and studied Nines. His jaw clenched and then his new emotions bubbled over. “Dammit, Nines. You need to be more careful. You’re fucking human now! If you get hurt then you can’t just be repaired like a machine.”

Nines looked confused. He had the furrowed brow and titled head. It was a look Gavin was used to seeing on his android. Nines usually gave him that look when Gavin’s behavior confused him. It was slightly strange seeing it on his own face. “Gavin, I had no intention of getting hurt. I was merely trying to apprehend the suspect.”

“Nines, that’s not the point! The point is you could’ve died! There was so much fucking blood Nines! It stained every goddamn surface!” He was shouting. His stress levels were rising at an alarming rate.

Nines reached out, quicker than Gavin expected considering Nines was just shot and all. Nines’ hand clamped around Gavin’s wrist. Gavin immediately shut up at the contact and looked at Nines. “Please calm down, Gavin.” Nines pleaded. “I know you’re stressed even without my scanner. Tense shoulders, clenched jaw, wild gestures. Calm down.” He wasn’t ordering, he was requesting. Not that it really mattered now, but Nines didn’t know that yet. He hoped Nines was still out of it enough to not clearly notice his emotions. He also idly noted that Nines’ thumb was lightly brushing up and down on his wrist.

Gavin stared at the man on the bed. He still wasn’t quite used to seeing himself. But it was Nines through and through. It was Nines that he almost lost.

He sat on the edge of Nines’ bed. “Nines, I was so scared of losing you.” He barely whispered. He launched himself at his partner, careful to avoid the bandages that were wrapped around his torso. One arm went behind his neck, the other snaked under Nines’ arm and pressed tightly to his back. “I don’t want to lose you. Please don’t leave me.”

Nines was startled for a moment. Then his arms held Gavin close. “I’m still here Gavin. And I will still be here as long as you want me here.”

Gavin didn’t move, but he continued the conversation. “How do you put up with me> I’m a rude pain in the ass.”

“You’re worth it.” Nines said immediately. “I will be here, no matter how much you push me away. I think I’m finally starting to understand you. Emotions…complicate things.” Nines said. The motions Nines kept feeling toward Gavin were definitely complicating. It was strange that it took becoming the other person to finally understand each other. “But the good emotions that complicate things are still pleasant. It’s definitely hard to manage.” Nines wouldn’t wish away any of the feelings he was experiencing for Gavin. The left him lightheaded and feeling blissful. They made hims smile whenever he thought of his partner.

Gavin sighed. “I’m gonna get a nurse.” Gavin admitted and finally let go of Nines’ hand. A nurse entered the room and gave a brief rundown of his condition. A few more days in the hospital and then some follow ups and he’d be fine. “I gotta tell you something.” Gavin started after the nurse left. “Tina knows about the uh…the switch.” Nines’ eyes widened. “She was getting suspicious anyway. She won’t tell a soul.”

“Just Chris.” Nines reasoned.

“Huh?” Nines asked.

“Her and Officer Miller as partners. He is perhaps one of your only other friends in the precinct.”

“Gee, thanks.” Gavin mumbled.

“But if he catches on to the strange behavior and asks Tina about it then she’ll surely tell him. But aside from Chris, I’m sure we’ll be fine.” Nines explained.

“Of course, especially with our clever little rouse. Ya know, our blossoming relationship.” Gavin teased, giving Nines a look that he hoped was somewhere between adoring and lustful.

Nines grumbled as his face heated up and turned pink. “That’s not fair. I’m in pain and a bit delirious.”

“All’s fair in love and war, Nines.” He was enjoying this.

“If I had strength right now, I would shut you up.” Nines snapped. That sentence was enough to make Gavin stop talking as he tried to piece together just what that meant. Gavin decided to make himself comfortable and sat on the edge of Nines’ bed.

“Oh, by the way, Kamski is back in town. You’ll be on bed rest for a while but we could always go see him when you’re feeling better.” Gavin told Nines.

“Why is be back? It’s kinda early for an out-of-state trip. And how did you know?”

“Uh…news report. Something called him back early.” Gavin said.

Nines narrowed his eyes. “You’re lying.” Nines prodded. “Gavin, just tell me.” He urged. He looked up at Gavin with pleading eyes.

Gavin sighed. “Fine. But I have a very good reason to tell you.” Nines looked at him silently, waiting for Gavin to continue. The man in question sighed once more before talking. “Elijah stopped by the hospital…to see me. Well, technically you but he thought it was me.”

“Why did Kamski come to see you?”

“Look, I’m only telling you this because Elijah might come back to see you. And if I’m not here, you need to understand why he’s here.” Nines nodded in understanding. “Elijah is my…my half-brother. We share a father and little else. We were related but didn’t see each other much while we were growing up. So we aren’t close or anything. I really don’t know why he was even here to see me…or you…or whatever. He came to see his brother for unknown reasons.”

Nines was silent for a moment. “I didn’t know.”

“I didn’t tell you.”

“But I should’ve known from a background check or something.” Nines said.

“Nah, I tried to stay as clear from my father and half-brother as possible.” Gavin said. “Don’t feel bad for not knowing. That was my intention. Besides, I always told you not to scan me, or research me, or any of that shit. Glad to know you actually listened.”

“So you no longer speak to him?” Nines asked. Gavin just shook his head. “Is that why you didn’t want to go see him?”

“Well, yeah. I didn’t want to go and have you figure out I was related to the piece of shit. And I know Kamski would be more of an asshole than normal because I’m his _little brother._ ” He didn’t even try to hide the bite in those words. “I’m sure he would be very helpful, but he would be more evasive and manipulative than normal.”

“You do realize we will still need to talk to him?” Nines asks.

Gavin let out an aggravated sigh, well he tried to. Androids can’t exactly be aggravated so it sounded less annoyed than he wanted. “Look, can we talk about this later? You need more rest and I just spent the entire day freaking out about you.”

“Only on one condition. I will drop the subject for now and continue resting if you go into low power mode.” Gavin immediately tried to brush it off but Nines wouldn’t let him. “The past few days you haven’t let yourself rest and today was particularly stressful. Androids don’t have adrenaline nor can they experience a crash from lack of it. But without processing the information your processors will slow down because you have the information built up.”

“Look, Nines. I hate going into the garden and dealing with Amanda.” She’s awful.

“Gavin, you are aware that humans can control their dreams right?” A nod from the other man. “Well, attempt to do the same in the Zen Garden. I’m not sure if it will work, but I think it’s very much worth the attempt. The Zen Garden is the equivalent of dreaming for androids. You should have some control over it. It’s also supposed to be your ideal world. Well, technically it’s my ideal world but you currently reside in it. Just focus, and you can change it.”

“That easy?”

“I don’t know for sure.” Nines said. “But try. And if it doesn’t work, you have the power to leave whenever you want.”

“Alright, I’ll try it.” Gavin went back to sit in his chair but didn’t go into low power mode until he was sure that Nines was asleep. He closed his eyes, as if to sleep. He opened his eyes, was back in the garden, and his jacket was resting on his shoulders. He strolled around and eventually noticed Amanda sitting on a bench. He narrowed his eyes and approached.

“Detective Reed.” He could hear the disappointment. “We talked about the software issues you kept experiencing. You did nothing to stop them. In fact, you made it worse by causing deviancy.”

“Oh so I broke Nines because I gave him free will?”

“The RK900 model is not equipped to handle deviancy. It is not equipped to handle free will. It should accept orders and nothing more. The RK900 is much more advanced than its predecessor, it is made to handle stressful and emotional situations without deviancy. It was never meant to feel anything.”

“Look, I don’t give a shit about that Nines was ‘made to handle.’ He has free will now. And I don’t see that as a bad thing. And this is my fucking garden now. So, get the phck out.” He just thought about it for half a second.

“Don’t try to-” Amanda didn’t get to finish her sentence before she just disappeared from the garden. Gavin didn’t care much for gardens, but he could see the calm of this place. He’d have to admit that his brother did a good job with this garden. But he would never tell him that. Gavin just relaxed and tried to enjoy the calm of the garden during the most stressful experience he ever had. But he was fine. And Nines was fine too. And that was the only thing he cared about right now.  
—————————————————————  
A soft knock at the door pulled Nines from the light sleep he had fallen into. The first thing he did upon waking up was look to Gavin. He was still sat in the chair near the bed. His arms were crossed and the LED that sat on his temple was a steady yellow hue. Nines knew that past few days were long and it would take a long time or an insanely loud noise to pull him from his stasis mode. There was a lot of information and a lot of would-be-emotions he had to process too. It would be a while.

Standing in the door was Elijah Kamski, looking almost nervous. “Yes?” Nines voiced. He knew that the man standing there thought he was his brother. He knew from Gavin’s explanation that they didn’t speak.

“I came last time you got hurt, didn’t I?” Kamski said evasively. “I figured I’d better check in on you.” His voice held his usual air of confidence. But Nines sensed an underlaying unease there. Uncomfortable at seeing his little brother in a hospital bed. The two may not have been close growing up, but they were still brothers. Nines thought how he’d feel if he saw Connor in a state of disrepair. He felt it an apt comparison. Something like a sibling that he knew more as a friend than family. The thought made him uncomfortable and he started to understand why Kamski felt so comfortable.

“If that’s your only reason for being here then you can go. I’m fine, stable at least. And I have Nines here.” Nines tried to get Kamski out. He wasn’t sure how to act around the man. 

“Oh, yeah. How is the android? He is the most advanced prototype I’ve ever created. Damn CyberLife wanted him near impossible to deviate, but it’s definitely not impossible.”

“He’s fine. Not deviant yet as far as I know. But he’s a loyal partner, he saved my life. He’s the reason I’m alive.” Nines said. Judging by the look Kamski sent his way, he guessed he was unable to hide the fondness in his voice.

“He saved you?” Kamski asked. “Could he have caught the suspect?”

Nines thought for a moment. He gave Kamski a sharp look. “I’m not sure. It’s a bit hard to remember considering I bleeding out from a bullet wound at the time.”

“Oh come on, Gav.” Kamski taunted. “Last time you were hospitalized you could remember the guy who injured you along with plenty embarrassing memories from our childhood in an attempt to make me leave. Surely if you think, you can remember.”

Nines huffed, unable to refute that. He closed his eyes and really thought about it. The suspect was in the doorway. Gavin would’ve been able to avoid gunshots and get close to the suspect. And, as an android, he could take a few bullets while he was at it. “Probably.”

Kamski nodded, thinly vailed pride shining through. “Well, lucky he chose not to. But he may be more deviant than you thought.” Then Kamski walked closer. He clapped a hand on Nines’ shoulder. “I’m glad your ok, Gavin.” A small smile, it seemed genuine too.

“Bye, Elijah.” Nines said, but his eyes never left the form slumped in a chair. How accurate was Kamski’s prediction? Did Gavin deviate to save Nines’ life? Nines decided the best use of his time was to sleep. But he knew what he and Gavin were talking about when he woke up.


	9. Small Recoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines and Gavin discuss the deviancy and put in a call to Elijah.

When Gavin finally blinked away the Zen Garden he felt amazing. And it felt amazing to be able to feel amazing. Gavin was accepting the perks of deviancy now. He felt very rested and his head was clear for the first time in days. He looked to the man in the hospital bed. He was talking to a nurse. He seemed more alert now. Gavin, after some confusion, checked his internal clock. Gavin was surprised to find he spent 12 hours in his Zen Garden. The nurse took her leave, leaving the two of them alone.

“You’re awake.” Nines said happily.

“You told me androids can’t sleep.” Gavin shot back with a smirk

Nines shrugged. “Yeah, but with how long and how deep in stasis you were, it was practically sleeping.”

“Well, I feel way better now. So sleeping wasn’t a bad idea.”

“Told you.” Nines teased playfully. Gavin just shrugged, still looking the human equivalent of half-asleep. “Kamski was here.” That woke him up, in seconds.

“What?!” He basically shouted, 

“It was alright. Don’t worry. I was able to speak to him easily enough. He talked to me very briefly. He mentioned visiting the last time you were hospitalized. He mentioned you had brought up embarrassing stories until he left.”

“Oh, I sure did.” Gavin remarked with a proud smirk. “I mentioned girls who dumped him and when he did dumb things as a kid. Anything to get him to leave. He was just here because our dad asked him too. He likes to pretend to care.”

“He also mentioned something else…” Nines began. Gavin raised a curious brow, urging Nines to continue. “Were you able to catch the suspect at the crime scene?”

Gavin stilled. As an android, he was a little bit more stiff than he liked. But his movements stilled even more. Similar to a computer freezing. It was only half a second, but Nines knew his own reactions to things. Gavin’s reaction told him everything. But Gavin tried to answer anyway. “Shit, I don’t know Nines. Things were kind of hectic.”

“Gavin, I know how my programming works. If my survival rate and catching the suspect were both over 50%, catching the suspect would take priority. I know the probability of catching the suspect had to be high. But I’m not sure what my survival probability was, but I recovered well enough that I suspect it had to be higher than 50%.”

“Yeah, by 2 percent!” Gavin shouted. Then he slumped as the anger left as quick as it came. “Nines, your chance of survival was 52%. I couldn’t just leave you there. Your chance of dying was too high in my opinion.”

“Gavin, how did you mange to save me then?” Gavin was silent. His LED was shining red. He toyed with his shirt again, before remembering that it was still covered in blood. He dropped it. He played with his shirt sleeves. “Gavin, please tell me.”

“I’m fucking sorry.” Gavin blurted out first. “I turned to you and the wall showed up and it told me to leave you. I couldn’t fucking do that. I smashed through the wall because I couldn’t leave you there to die!” Gavin gripped Nines hands tightly. “Ugh, and as much as I missed having emotions they slammed into me and it sucked. And I’m sorry for every mean thing that I’ve ever said or done to you. Both before and after this switch.” Gavin was so relieved he could say that and mean it.

“I…I’m deviant?” Nines stuttered out.

Gavin nodded, a tear like solution filling his eyes. “I’m sorry.” He said.

Nines was silent while he sat thinking about it. He had emotions for a few a while now. He enjoyed having thoughts about things. He liked being able to say whether he liked or disliked things. He liked having those complicated feelings about Gavin. These feelings he couldn’t figure out. But he liked them, they made him feel warm every time they showed up. He would continue to feel that. But right now, Gavin was upset. And that had the opposite effect of those feelings he enjoyed.

“Gavin, can you come sit here?” Nines asked and patted the bed near him. Gavin’s brow furrowed but he complied. He sat next to Nines. Nines moved, slowly, but was able to sit up enough to wrap his arms around Gavin. “It’s alright.” Nines finally told him.

Gavin was confused by the contact but it comforted him. He pulled back eventually. “You’re not mad?” Gavin asked, his LED was yellow now. He used to be so used to emotions, could hide embarrassing displays like these. But he was without them for so long, every emotion felt so strong that it completely overwhelmed him.

Nines shrugged. “I’ve been juggling emotions for a while now. I think that if I had none when I returned to my body, it would be alarming. I have begun to enjoy emotions and opinions.”

Gavin casually leaned back in the bed. He hadn’t intentionally planned to lay next to Nines, but he wanted to lean back instead of sitting straight up. He wanted something! It was far more casual. Nines unconsciously made room for Gavin. “So, what’s your favorite emotion so far?” He asked.

Nines thought about it. “I’m not sure. I have a fondness for Connor I hadn’t felt before. I now understand why he views me as a brother. I enjoy spending time with him. I also enjoy spending more time with you. Though, the emotions I feel when we are together are confusing.”

“How?” Gavin asked.

“I’m not sure. I enjoy spending time with you!” Nines was quick to assure Gavin. “And I always get good feelings from it. A…warmth inside is probably the best way to describe it. I dislike it when ever you walk away from me, even if it’s for a short time. I enjoy spending our evenings together, they may be my favorite part of the day. But I can’t understand what all the emotions are.”

Gavin stared in silence. He knew full well what the emotion was. But now was not the time for them to deal with that. Once they were back in their own bodies, they could talk about their feelings. Though, Gavin was much more skilled at avoiding those particular conversations. But he knew he had to avoid it right now. “Hmm, yeah that is weird.” Is what he went with. “I’m sure it’s fine, like you said, it’s good emotions. But categorizing emotions is tricky without feeling them so I don’t know, Nines. But, keep accepting those good feelings. It might help us figure out what it is.” He didn’t exactly want Nines to start avoiding those feelings. Since deviating, Gavin thought he might be feeling something similar.

“I would like to keep feeling them. What emotions have you felt since deviating?” Nines asked. It would help him to understand what his processors have handled.

Gavin shrugged. “Mostly bad things. Fear, worry, sorrow. But some good too. Relief, calm, refreshed. And right now, contentment. After the past few hours, I’m ok being just content.” He left out the part that being with Nines made his thirium pump work quicker. At least he thought that was the proper analogy. He knew shit about his anatomy right now.

Later that day, Tina called and asked if she and Chris could take over the case that caused the switch. This confirmed the theory that Tina would tell Chris. The two allowed them to work the case. At one point, Tina came back to the hospital and made Gavin return home and change out of the clothes he’d been wearing for far too long. Gavin changed and literally threw the soiled clothes out as he had no desire to keep them due to the memory associated with them.

Nines was able to leave the hospital after a few days, but they put him on bed rest. It was torture for both of them. Gavin had to take care of Nines and Nines was pathetic. After a day or two, Nines whined from the room. “Gavin…” Gavin came into a room with an annoyed expression.

“What could you possibly want now?” He complained.

Nines narrowed his eyes. “I preferred you before you were deviant. You would come assist me without complaint.”

“Bullshit.”

Nines shrugged in agreement. “I’m bored.” He whined.

“You’re on bed rest. You’re supposed to be bored.” Gavin said, sitting on the edge of the bed. “And anything exciting could cause a problem.”

“Look, I…I know that you don’t really want to, but…”

“Spit it out. Nines.” Gavin said. Annoyance. Another emotion logged. His fucking systems were _logging_ every new emotion he has. No wonder androids self-destruct with big stress levels. Their systems can’t keep track of the emotions fast enough. Gavin has been enough situations where he was feeling so much he never knew what was dominant. Thought that was when he was human and didn’t feel something short circuit when he got too emotional.

“Could we call Elijah?”

Gavin froze. No. Every part of him screamed no. But…they needed him. He let out an annoyed groan. “Fucking fine.” He snapped. He stood, grabbed a tablet, and walked back over to the bed. “Scoot, make room.” Nines complied. Gavin sat on the bed while Nines had to lean propped against the headboard.

Gavin pulled up his brother’s contacts. He took a deep breath before starting a call. It rang a few times, his LED yellow the whole time. Nines grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him backwards, intent on helping him relax. “Hey!” He shouted as he toppled back, Nines slipped an arm around Gavin to keep him from slamming back against the headboard. 

“You need to relax and calm down.”

“You fucking-”

“Is this a bad time?” Came Elijah’s voice. Gavin’s eyes widened.

“No!” He said quickly, directing his attention to the video call on the tablet. Nines tightened his arm around Gavin’s shoulder and pulled him closer.

“Relax.” He hissed. “You’re emoting far too much and I’m sure your stress levels are far too high.”

“You two seem close.” Elijah noted. Gavin really didn’t want to be having this discussion. “But of course, Gavin isn’t calling for social reasons. Unless the world is ending. Even then, I’m sure he wouldn’t bother to call me.” Gavin actually felt a little bad about how he had a tendency to treat his brother. But only for a short second.

“You’re right.” Gavin said, trying to direct the conversation the way they wanted it to go. “There is a police matter we’d like to discuss with you.”

“A large number of androids are being forcibly swapped with other models. An AP700 swapping with a KL900, for instance.” Nines explained. “We were hoping you might have information. Seeing as how the process of transferring data from one android to another was created with the RK800 model.”

Elijah arched a brow. “Gavin, I think that’s the most intelligible sentence I’ve ever heard from you.”

“Hey! Fuck you!” Gavin shouted before clamping a hand over his mouth. Well, Elijah had to know now. Gavin didn’t like him, but he knew his brother was fucking smart.

Elijah smirked, then let out a chuckle, than laughed. “You got swapped didn’t you?”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Yeah we did asshole. So be a useful brother for once, and try to help us.” He snapped.

“Unfortunately Gavin, I can’t do much. Transfer between human and android shouldn’t even be possible. Android to android is simple, if your clever enough. But you two…” He sighed, amusement obvious. “So Gavin, what was it like having no free will? I mean, clearly you’ve deviated by now. But before that?”

“Fuck off, Eli.” He scoffed.

“Mister Kamski?” Nines spoke up again.

“Now that’s weird to hear from Gavin.” Elijah muttered.

“You mentioned yourself that whoever did this achieved the impossible. But so did you once.” Nines continued.

“Damn, I really wish it were my brother saying that.” Elijah said, glaring at Gavin while he said it.

“Whoever did this had to be clever. And a knowledge of androids would almost certainly be required. Do you know anyone who might fit that description, besides yourself? Someone who might have a motive to do this? Someone you might have worked with who showed promise?” Nines continued.

Elijah hummed in consideration. “Give me a few days to think. Also, I’ll see about fixing your little uh…problem.”

“Just like that?” Gavin asked with a raised brow. “No manipulation or bargain?”

“Maybe I’m trying to be a helpful brother for once.” Elijah snapped. “I’ll get back to you in a few days.” With that, the call ended.

“Well, he was useless.” Gavin slumped back as well. Neither of them mentioned that Nines’ arm was still slung over his shoulder. And neither mentioned it when Nines used the arm to pulled Gavin closer to him.

“We don’t know that for sure yet.” Nines said as Gavin rested his head on Nines’ shoulder. “If we have nothing after he calls us back, then you can complain about how useless your brother is.” That got a small smile from Gavin. “I miss having my processors.”

“Believe me, if I could return them then I would.”

“It’s just…well don’t you think Kamski behaved strangely?”

“Dunno.” Gavin shrugged. “He’s always been a little weird.”

“Gavin, could you try to process Kamski’s actions?”

“Nope.” Gavin said, moving to get into a more comfortable position. Apparently that was with his head on Nines’ chest. In truth, it probably would’ve been more comfortable if the positions were switched as Gavin was currently stuck in the body of a freakishly long and lanky android. But that wasn’t his fucking fault. “I’m too tired.”

“Androids don’t get tired.” Nines countered. “Deviant or not.”

“No, but it’s good to process information right. So, I’m taking a nap.”

“You’re going into low power mode.” Nines countered with a sulk. “Androids don’t sleep.”

“You should sleep too.” Gavin muttered. Nines agreed. After some more moving, they managed to both lay down. Gavin used Nines’ chest as a pillow, being careful not to get to close to his recovering wounds.

So Gavin, refused to analyze Kamski’s actions. They seemed…different. As did some of his comments. Nines didn’t know what it was. But he planned to find out as soon as possible. Once he had his processors back, he’d perform the analysis. Then he’d know.


	10. Opening Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin opens up a bit and they finally make some progress on the case.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Side note, chapter 8 was recently (6-20-2020) updated. I changed a bit of the hospital scene, specifically Nines waking up. I strongly suggest going to read it. The overall plot doesn't change due to the change, but has a completely different mood to it. Anyway, just putting this here for anyone returning to the story and read chapter 8 before June 20th. On with the chapter! Hope you enjoy.

Gavin regretted everything about going to sleep now. While he’d been in low power mode, Tina had let herself in with a spare key she had. Gavin woke up to her taking a picture of the scene with her phone and wearing a shit-eating grin.

Gavin had freed himself of Nines, and pulled Tina out of the room with him. “Let him sleep. He needs it to recover. What’s up?” He decided to just not mention the photo she just took.

“Nothing for the case.” She shrugged. “I came to check on you and I find you all curled up in bed with Nines. Well, technically you’re Nines.”

“Don’t overthink it, T.”

“Well, it doesn’t really matter. Because it was you,” she pointed at Gavin. “Who once mentioned while drunk, that you’d like to have him,” A point toward the bedroom. “In your bed if you ever got the chance.”

“Because I was fucking drunk.” Gavin spat. “I didn’t exactly mean I wanted him in my bed with a bullet wound.”

“Being drunk doesn’t make you a liar, Gavin. It makes you the exact opposite.” She smirked.

“Well, right now I’d give anything to be myself again.” He sighed. “And yeah, we’re close now, but what happens when we switch back? Do we go back to hating each other?”

“Doubtful. You guys understand each other better now.” She said with a shrug. “Besides, if you deviated, Nines will need you to guide him through emotions.” She smirked. “And you’ll need Nines to reach the top shelves.” Gavin held up his middle finger in response, no malice behind it. Then Tina let her smile fall. “Anything you know specifically about this case?”

“Whatever this asshole does, it fucking hurts. As far as I can tell though, there’s no lingering effect. Well…besides the whole ‘being in another body’ thing. And we called Kamski.” Tina hid her surprise well. “He was useless as usual. He’s thinking about it and will get back to us. We’ll forward any info onto you and Chris. Oh, and Kamski knows now too.”

“He just guess or…?”

“I didn’t tell him. I guess he can just tell his brother from an android. Surprising, considering how much more he cared about his plastic creation than me over the years.”

“Well, everyone at the station thinks it’s so cute you’re taking time off to take care of your boyfriend.” She teased. Gavin actually forget the were supposed to be pretending to be together. Not that it mattered here in his house. But he did willingly go into low-power mode while leaning on Nines.

“Yeah, yeah.” He muttered. “Thanks for coming T. We’re doing alright. Bedrest mostly for him.”

“Ok, but you call me the second you need anything. Got it?” She asked.

“Understood. See ya, T.”

“See ya, Gavin. Tell Nines I told him to hurry up and get better already.” With that, Tina left as quick as she had come, though after she gave him a hug.

Gavin sighed and plopped down into a chair. He wasn’t lying when he was talking to Tina. He liked that fact that he didn’t hate his partner anymore, he found he actually liked spending time with Nines. He never really gave him a chance before. Now they almost had to trust each other. He really hoped that once they switched back that this closeness wouldn’t end.

But of course it would. Why would Nines keep coming to his house after this? There was no reason to see each other outside of work. Gavin gained a friend in his partner, and he was going to lose that friend just as quickly.

And, for a moment, Gavin figured he could cope with being an android if it meant he didn’t have to lose Nines.

Then he realized, if he was an android then Nines, as a human, would die one day and leave him alone. “Fuck.” He grumbled.

“Gavin?” Nines asked, coming out of the bedroom. He was leaning against the wall for support.

“Nines, you shouldn’t be up.” Gavin said, and stood up to help Nines back to bed.

“I tried calling to you. You didn’t respond. I had to check on you.” Nines said. “Are you alright?”

“Fine.” Gavin said. "I should be taking care of you."

“Gavin, you have an LED that gives away how you’re truly feeling. It’s red. Something is wrong.” Nines accused.

Gavin slapped a hand over the lighted circle. “I’m fine.”

“Covering it doesn’t mean the color has changed.” Nines said gently. He slowly reached forward and pulled Gavin’s hand away from his temple. “Talk to me.”

Gavin sighed. “Let’s get you back to bed. Then we can talk.” Gavin helped Nines back into the room. He sat him on the bed. “There, now you can rest.” Before Gavin could leave the room, Nines grabbed his hand and gave it a sharp tug. Gavin yelped as he fell back onto the bed. He shot Nines a glare.

“Talk to me.”

Gavin sighed. “I’m just overthinking things, Nines. There’s nothing you can do.”

“I can listen.”

Gavin gave him the smallest of smiles. “I know you can. But I may not feel like talking.”

“Gavin, your LED is solid red. something is deeply troubling you. Please.”

“Why do you even care?” Gavin snapped. “The only reason we are spending any time together is because we have to. If we weren’t stuck like this, then you would still hate me and we would never see each other outside of work. So don’t act like now, all of a sudden, you care about me at all.”

“But…I do care about you.” Nines said.

Gavin scowled at him. “Never seemed like it before.”

“Gavin, I couldn’t exactly show you that I cared before. I had no emotions to show. It was actually impossible. But I did try to keep you safe on all our cases. I brought you coffee everyday. I made sure you were getting adequate sleep and trying to get you to have healthier diet. I tried to show my care and concern through little gestures.”

“I know now how much you did for me. After all, I’m doing all of it for you now. But the other stuff, all that crap about my health. That was you caring?”

Nines shrugged. “That’s all my programming at the time would let me do.” Then he gave a small smile. “But I’m sure now that I can show you just how much I care.” Gavin had to look away from Nines and fight a blush. He wasn’t even sure he could blush. He really tried not to over think that sentence.

“So…once this whole thing is over and we’re back to ourselves…you aren’t gonna ditch me? Things won’t just go back to being the way they were?” Gavin hated how much of his worry laced his question.

“I suppose I was hoping things would stay the way they are now. With the obvious exception of us being ourselves again. So, if you’ll allow me to continue to come to your home after work and spend time with you, then I will gladly do just that.”

Gavin smiled and his LED finally circled back to blue. “You are definitely allowed to do that.” Gavin said with a playful eye roll. “In fact, you’re encouraged to.”  
—————————————————————  
Gavin sat in an armchair in his room. Nines was resting still. He had a tablet on his lap but he was more focused on the man sleeping in the bed. His phone vibrated in his jacket pocket. He pulled it out and groaned as he saw Elijah’s contact on the screen. He quietly slipped out of the room and answered. “Hey Eli.”

“Well, how’s my robotic brother?” Elijah asked, his teasing tone overly evident.

“Fuck you. Technically this is all your fault for creating androids.”

“Aren’t you friends with Nines? So you have nothing to complain about. Who knew I’d build your best friend?” He reasoned. “Look, I’m calling about the case you asked me about. Unfortunately, I don’t have any information right now. But I am looking into everything. For one, I have to acquire my old employee list but CyberLife doesn’t feel much like sharing.”

“Call Tina Chen. She’s handling this case while Nines is recovering. If you speak to CyberLife with her, she can demand the files.” Gavin suggested.

“It just the fact that they won’t share employee lists with the person that employed them.” Kamski grumbled. “I’m also studying the data transfer procedure. I need to see how transferring data from different models is possible. That might further explain how you and Nines switched.”

“So…you have jack shit?” Gavin asked.

“Yes, Gavin. I have nothing. What does your police investigation have after much longer and the use of more resources?” Kamski asked knowingly.

“Yeah, yeah. Fuck you.” Gavin retorted. “Keep us updated.”

“Will do.” With that the call ended. Gavin checked the time. Nines would need medicine and food soon. So he went about making some soup and grabbed Nines’ medicine. He went back into the room. Nines’ medicine made him drowsy but that was alright. The more Nines slept, the less pain he felt. The bowl of soup and medicine was placed on a nightstand by the bed.

Gavin sat on the edge of the bed. He placed a hand on Nines’ shoulder. “Hey Nines.” He said softly. “Time to get up. You need to eat and take medicine.”

“Not hungry.” He mumbled.

“Doesn’t matter.” Gavin said. “You need to eat something.”

Nines rolled onto his back and glared at Gavin. “How many times did you curse at me whenever I made sure you didn’t skip a meal?”

Gavin shrugged. “I won’t promise I won’t do it again, cause I definitely will. But you got shot. So, here’s my compromise. If I get shot, I won’t complain if you tell me to eat and take medicine.”

Nines grimaced. “How about you just don’t get shot?”

“Fair enough. Here, eat.” He handed Nines the soup. “Kamski called. He’s got nothing. Like I said, he’s useless.”

“Give him some time. I’m sure he will turn out to be helpful.” Nines said. Shadow meandered in the room and hopped up on the bed. Nines smiled and started to pet the cat after he finished the soup.

“He really likes you. He’s usually wary of strangers.” Gavin commented, taking the now empty bowl from Nines.

“He does believe I am his owner currently.” Nines commented.

“Nah, cats can sense this kind of stuff.” Gavin said.

Nines gave Gavin a look. Gavin couldn’t quite classify what kind of look it was, but it was a look. “You think your pet can sense whether we switched bodies? You just know he can tell the difference about something that has never happened before?”

“Ok, look. People say cats have a sixth sense. Besides, he also doesn’t have a problem with me. So if he can’t tell a difference, then he still doesn’t have a problem with technically you.”

Nines had to shrug. “Fair enough. Well, I’m glad your cat likes me. There’s no issues with me returning after we solve the case.” Gavin smiled and scooted closer to pet his cat as well. “You should go in low-power mode.” Nines suggested.

“I’m fine Nines. Totally fine this time. I’m not really avoiding it.”

“If you felt better after going into low-power mode a few days ago, you’ll feel much better if you do it again today. Powering down repeatedly after stressful situations is suggested to keep your systems running effectively. Plus, sleeping helps regulate emotions. You have emotions and low-power mode is basically sleeping.”

Gavin scowled. “Fine. I’ll be on the couch.”

“Wait.” Nines said quickly. Gavin looked back at him with a quirked brow. Nines’ statement immediately died on his lips. How exactly did he plan to tell Gavin he wanted him to stay? Damn emotions. “You should stay here. In…In case I need you at some point.” Nines stuttered to explain.

Gavin was actually pleased at the request. He could rest on the couch but he didn’t really want to. He wanted to stay close to Nines, and now he had a reason to. So he leaned back against the pillows. “You know what? I miss sleeping under the covers.” Gavin said. “I can’t feel temperature but I can feel comfy. And now I can say what a want. And I want to be under the blankets.” So Gavin immediately pulled the covers back and crawled under. “See? This is fucking comfy.”

Nines nodded. “I have to admit, I never understood why you liked your bed so much before I knew what comfort was. And I also never knew how hard it could be to wake up sometimes.”

When he blinked awake (sleep was something he was really starting to enjoy), he wasn’t sleeping on his pillow. He was on something much more firm. There was also something resting around his shoulders. He discretely looked around and found he was laying on Gavin. Or technically on himself. At some point overnight, he and Gavin must have moved around. Gavin had an arm around his shoulders, holding him against his chest.

Nines was wide awake now. He knew he should move away. Probably get something to eat and some more medicine. But he didn’t really want to move away. He glanced up at Gavin and found a blue LED spinning slowly. He was still in low-power mode. He just re-situated himself and let his eyes slip shut once more. He wasn’t going to stop this if he didn’t have to.

If Gavin had anything to say about it when he powered up, he made no mention of it. The two of them kept repeating this process every night. The two got very comfortable sharing a bed and almost always ended up cuddling.

Eventually, Nines was able to stand and start moving around the house. It was a slow healing process. Elijah kept calling them but it was always no information.

Then, suddenly there was. “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought about him before!” Kamski complained. Gavin had his phone on speaker so Nines could overhear too. “Murphy Dunne. He worked for me for two years. He was smart. He helped with coding, he assisted with the RK400 model. Now, deactivated. But that was a specialty line, the coding was extremely specialized to this line.”

“Has the coding of the RK models been changed between the 400 and 800 models?” Nines asked.

“Not completely.” Elijah answered. "The base code is the same."

“If the RK800 models had data transfer capabilities, it has to do with coding. If he could understand the coding, he could fabricate his own transfer mechanism.” Gavin reasoned.

“But to understand the coding he would have to have access to a working model.” Elijah said. “Last I checked, Connor was ok and untampered with.”

“Did CyberLife have a backup model in case Connor deviated?” Nines asked.

“Checking.” Was Kamski’s quick reply. “Yes, they had one they actually activated to neutralize Connor.” Gavin decided he didn’t want to know what database his brother was checking, and most likely hacking, to get this answer.

“Hank shot it.” Gavin interjected, remembering that now. “How hard would it be to get that destroyed and scrapped android?”

“For a former employee?” Kamski questioned. “Not hard at all. Not to mention that things were kinda crazy with a revolution going on.”

“The machine would need to be modified to work for all androids and not only RK800 models.” Nines said. “Not to mention human to android transfers.”

“Nines, are you alright to head to the station?” Gavin asked.

“I think so.” He replied.

“Alright. Thanks Eli. We’re going to head into the station and look into this.” Gavin said.

“Uh, you’re welcome.” Elijah sounded slightly rattled at the politeness from Gavin. “I’m still looking into transfer software.”

“Sounds good, Eli. See ya.” He hung up. “We’re finally getting somewhere, Nines!” He said with clear excitement as he grabbed a jacket and car keys.

“I think we might be able to close this case. You might want to thank your brother personally after all this is over.” Nines chided.

“I guess he helped out a lot with this.” Gavin mumbled. “It’s nice…being on the same side as him, I mean.”

“I’m sure you can continue to be on the same side if you talk to him.” Nines advised. Gavin was silent all the way to the station.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Progress? In this case? It's more likely than you think.


	11. Progress

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The case gets further along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all ready to meet our main suspect? Let me know if he seems realistic. He's an OC so I want to make sure he's believable.
> 
> As a side note, chapter 8 was updated on June 20th. If you read it before then, I suggest re-reading it. The change was when Nines wakes up in the hospital. The overall plot hasn't changed due to the update but the whole mood of Nines waking up changed. But onto the chapter!

“Murphy Dunne.” Gavin mumbled as he typed it in at his terminal. Nines slid a chair up next to Gavin and leaned against him. “What’re you doing?” Gavin asked.

“We’re dating, remember?” Nines whispered.

“Oh, right.” He mumbled, confusion being overwritten and becoming flustered.

Nines glanced over at him with a smirk. “You’re blushing.”

Gavin immediately looked at Nines. “Can androids blush?”

“Considering that your cheeks are blue, I’d say yes.”

Gavin just turned back to his terminal without fighting back. “Here’s our guy.” He said, finding Murphy’s file. “Uh…yeah. A couple years at CyberLife.” Gavin blinked a few hasty blinks that were practically forced out of him. “Ok, that was weird.”

“Get a message?” Nines asked knowingly, never taking his eyes off the terminal.

“An email, actually. From Eli.” So Gavin pulled it up on his terminal. “Ah, Dunne’s files from CyberLife.” He scanned it before finding why he was fired. “There!” He said and pointed excitedly.

“Fired for tampering with coding and machinery.” Nines read. “So…he was looking into this back then.”

“Yeah.” Gavin agreed, leaning back from the screen. “But why now? Why start doing these things now?”

Nines raised a brow. “We could always ask him.”

“Tina and Chris are going to get him. You know that right?” Gavin pivoted in his chair to look directly at Nines. He crossed his arms over his chest.

“We can go.” Nines argued.

“Absolutely not.”

“Why?” Nines asked.

“You have fucking bullet wound.” Gavin nearly shouted.

“Fine.” Nines mumbled. “I just hate this useless feeling.”

Gavin immediately felt bad. Nines has never been sidelined like this before. He hasn’t been hurt so much he couldn’t fulfill his duties. And now he has to feel the way all humans feel eventually. Not good enough. “Sorry.” Gavin mumbled. “But this is just how it has to be. If you push yourself now, you’ll never get better.”

“I understand that. I just…I want to work. I don’t want to sit around anymore.”

“Just a bit longer. I’m sure we’re close to cracking this case. Then you’ll be indestructible again.”

“At least currently, when you act recklessly, I know you are most likely be safe.” Gavin knew that if Nines still had his LED it would be red right now.

“How about this, I don’t be as reckless?” Gavin asked.

“I think that’ll be ok.” Nines said with a small smile.

“Emotions made you soft, robo-cop.” Gavin teased quietly.

Nines responded by laughing before pulling Gavin into a quick hug. All for appearances is what Nines told himself. Definitely not because he wanted the contact. Gavin was telling himself the same things.  
—————————————————————  
“Guys?” Tina said, walking up. “You’re guy is in the interrogation room. But you owe me. He put up on hell of a struggle, including slamming me back against a brick wall.”

“Drinks are on me the next five times we go out, T.” Gavin promised.

“I’m holding you to that.” She warned.

“Shall we?” Nines asked.

“You wanna go in there?” Gavin asked. “You’re still not quite in…working order.”

“We just recently had this conversation. I can’t sit still anymore. I finally want some answers.” Nines said.

“Then let’s go.” Gavin said. He picked up the case file. He noted with satisfaction that it grew considerably in the last few days. Gavin unconsciously fixed his jacket before striding into the interrogation room. He was well aware of the fact that Tina and Chris were probably in the observation room. “Hey.” Gavin said as he took a seat across from the man. Nines leaned against the wall behind Gavin. “Remember us?”

Murphy leaned back comfortably in his chair and didn’t say anything. He reminded Gavin of Elijah at one time. He exuded confidence, he knew just how good he was at nearly everything. But he also looked tired, at the end of his rope, and overworked. He was close to getting exactly what he wanted. But Neither Gavin nor Nines knew what that was.

“We remember you.” Gavin continued. “Hell, you’re probably the one person we can’t stop thinking about. After this Freaky Friday shit you pulled.” He snarled.

The only sign that Murphy gave was the smallest uptick of the corner of his lips. A proud, smug smirk. “We know you’re smart.” Nines spoke up. “In mechanics and coding. You worked for Elijah Kamski on some pretty important and groundbreaking creations. Why hide that?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean.” Murphy said.

Gavin smirked. He was exactly like his brother. “I told you.” Gavin said, looking back to Nines. “He doesn’t know anything.”

“Trying to hurt my pride to get me to talk, android?” He asked, knowing full well how that grated on Gavin’s nerves. “You really don’t know anything about emotions, huh Scrap Metal?”

“I assure you, he knows more about emotions than you realize.” Nines spoke up. “But if you don’t like hearing an ‘android’ judge you, how about I do it. You’re truly one of the worst people we’ve met. You’re heartless and spineless. You ruin the lives of countless androids and can’t even take blame.”

“Ever considered that I was helping other androids.” Murphy claimed.

“And you think you’re being some great savior, huh?” Gavin inquired.

Murphy smirked again. “Trying to get me to confess something?”

“Got something to confess?” Gavin shot back.

Nines sighed. “Look, here’s how it’s going to go. We are going to find evidence against you. So, you might as well explain yourself. Or you’ll be remembered for whatever we come up with as a motive. Hell, it was probably boredom is all. You grew bored and had to do something to pass the time.” Murphy glared. Nines smirked now. He still knew how to read people. He knew that Murphy absolutely wanted recognition for what he did. Whatever it was. Nines shrugged. He looked toward his partner. “Do you have any theories?”

“Stupidity.” Gavin snapped shortly.

“You two have no idea what I’m like.” Murphy scoffed.

“Enlighten us.” Nines urged.

Murphy sighed. “You boys were right about something. I am smart. Smart enough to understand how androids work. But that’s just the start. Androids are boring almost. Wires, circuits, electricity. The thing that fascinates me is the differences between humans and androids. Where androids aren’t quite human, where they fall short. Things humans can do that androids can’t.”

“And what did you find out?” Gavin asked.

“I’m sure you two want to know.” He said. “Clearly you haven’t fixed your current…problem. But your problem is key to my solution.”

“But why?” Nines asked. “What’s the point?”

“No reason that concerns you.”

“It concerns us the minute you got the drop on us.” Gavin said. “And if your so smart, how do you reverse the process?”

Murphy shrugged. “I honestly have no fucking clue. I don’t need to know how to reverse it.” He let out an amused chuckle. “So I guess you two are stuck.”

“You think we haven’t contacted someone? We are working with Mr. Kamski and I assume he will find a solution.” Nines said.

Another laugh from Murphy. “Kamski isn’t as smart as he seems without his precious company behind him. He won’t figure it out.”

“Oh, so you’re the smart one?” Gavin said before he let out a short chuckle. “I don’t remember you starting a revolutionary company. Besides, we have a handful of statements from victims of yours. We’re charging these as counts of assault. And there are a lot.” With that, he left the interrogation room. Nines followed. “What’s the motive?” Gavin asked almost immediately.

“I think we’ll just have to dig into his history to figure that out.” Nines said.

“But we know another problem now too.” Gavin sighed.

“He can’t fix this.” Nines paused. “You defended your brother.”

“Hell yeah I did.” Gavin said with a small smile. “I’m the only one allowed to talk shit about my brother.” There was a pause. “But I do think he’ll help us. I’m pretty sure he’ll find a solution.”

“We did find our suspect though.” Nines said happily.

“Once we find his machine, that should help Kamski.” Gavin sighed. “I say we request a search warrant and call it a day.”

Nines didn’t want to be done. He wanted to keep working. He supposed he could update his report back at Gavin’s. He knew Gavin wanted to be home where Nines could rest. Besides, there wasn’t much they could do until they had the legal right to search Murphy’s house. “Alright.” Nines agreed. He saw Gavin’s relief that he hadn’t argued this time.

The two of them got the warrant requested and Gavin leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Nines stood in front of Gavin and held out a hand to help him stand from his chair. Gavin lifted his mouth into a half smile. “Thanks.” He said. He accepted the help but didn’t rely on Nines to pull him up. After all, he was still recovering. “I never missed the relief of sleep more than I do today.” Gavin complained as they got outside the station.

“It was a loaded day. That tends to lead to exhaustion.” Nines said. His statement was accented by him letting out a loud yawn. Gavin looked toward him then laughed. Due to the way he process audio as an android, he now knew what it sounded like when Nines laughed. His next goal was to try to make Nines laugh when he was back as an android.

“Exhaustion, huh?” He teased, and bumped against Nines. Nines smiled a bit. The trip home was rather uneventful.

“Gavin?” Nines asked as soon as they got inside.

Gavin immediately scooped up his cat and plopped down on the couch. “Yeah?”

“Do you think we’ll actually get this fixed?” Nines lowered himself cautiously next to Gavin.

“Of course.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“I don’t.” Gavin shrugged and continue to pet his cat absentmindedly. “But if I sit here and constantly think there’s nothing we can do, then there’s no point in working toward a solution. And we’re so fucking close, Nines.”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” Nines said. “I’m exhausted but I don’t feel like I could rest.”

“Adrenaline.” Gavin supplied. “Look, let’s have some dinner then you can read a book or something. It helps calm you down and makes you tired.”

They did just that. Over the course of the time Nines spent recovering, Gavin had come to lay in bed with Nines. It was routine now. While Nines had made himself cozy on one side of the bed with a book, Gavin was on the other side with a hand held game console. He could turn his brain off whenever he wanted, and he was infinitely better at his games with a computer brain so he didn’t mind playing a video game immediately before bed.

He eventually felt Nines leaning against him. He glanced over and found Nines was just barely awake still, his eyes skimming over the pages of the book. Gavin gave it a few more minutes. Sure enough, when he looked back over, Nines’ eyes were shut and the book was sliding from his grip.

Gavin shut the game console off and put it aside. He eased the book from Nines’ grasp before putting it aside too. He thanked his current long arms because he didn’t have to move from where Nines was leaning against him. He then eased Nines into a position so he was laying flat. Nines grumbled, still half asleep. But as soon as Gavin laid down too, Nines was right next to him again. “Won’t be able to sleep, huh?” He whispered with a fond smile. “Goodnight, Nines.”


	12. Dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines has his first dream. And it isn't a good one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is short. But enjoy it. It is a pretty good one.

Nines sleepily registered that he was dreaming. He was back in the house where he was injured. There was no reason for him to be there again. Nines looked around for Gavin, he should be there. He was there when it happened. As Nines walked through the house searching, he passed a mirror. He was…himself again. Of course it was only in his dream, but he was himself for a time. Right down to his CyberLife jacket. It was a comfort. But he still needed to know where Gavin was.

He walked around some more, approaching the table. It was covered in papers, mail, and magazines. It had all fallen off when the two shoved the table over. It was their barricade from a rain of bullets. Nines absently pushed papers aside and noticed bullet holes still riddled the top of the table. Dreams rarely made sense. Which explained why the table was unchanged besides the holes on the surface.

He shook his head and continued on. Toward the front door, toward the couch. He cautiously pulled out his service weapon. He knew what happened when he approached last time. He didn’t want to get caught off guard again. It hurt enough last time.

Then he saw movement beyond the window. Someone standing nearby, between the doorway and the window. Nines crouched behind a chair and was able to angle his shot so it would go through the window and severely incapacitate the person outside. A shot, the shattering of glass, and a grunt from the other person as they fell.

Nines walked toward the door to approach the fallen suspect. He pushed open the door and froze. Instead of their suspect, Connor was lying in a growing pool of blue blood. Nines had shot him, fatally. Near his thirium pump. “Well done, RK900.” Nines’ eyes widened at the familiar voice. He knew that voice too well. But it wasn’t supposed to be here. He wasn’t in his garden. But when he turned, Amanda was standing there. A wide smile on her face,

“You’ve accomplished your mission. Eliminate the faulty RK800.” Nines could only turn back and stare in horror as Connor’s LED spun on red a few times before fading off completely. Emotions flooded him. And none of them good. “You have one more mission.” Amanda continued. Either she failed to noticed Nines’ distress or she didn’t care. “Eliminate Detective Reed.”

Nines spun quickly, staring at Amanda. “Why?” He asked in horror.

“He’s a threat to you. You’re dangerously close to deviating, RK900. Even before this case. And all of it points to the Detective.” Amanda reasoned. She stepped aside and Gavin was suddenly there, looking as his human self, unconscious on the floor. “You must eliminate him.”

Nines’ body started moving without his command. He got closer and closer to Gavin’s limp form on the ground. He fought the urge to raise the gun and level it at Gavin’s head. The whole scenario got worse as Gavin stirred. He groaned, moved around a bit and then sat up. He opened his eyes to see a gun pointed at his face. “Nines? Nines what the fuck?” Gavin asked. His question held no malice, only concern and fear.

“I can’t - I can’t stop Gavin.” Nines stuttered.

“Try harder!” Gavin pleaded. “Come on, Nines.”

Amanda placed a hand on Nines’ arm. “Fulfill your mission. Eliminate him.”

Gavin’s eyes widened in fear. “No! Nines, please! I don’t want to die!” Nines’ hand shook as he tried to move his arm but his programming kept the gun level. Nines tried so hard to keep his finger off the trigger, but it rested there anyway. “Please, Ni-”

A gunshot stopped Gavin before he could say another word. The gun tumbled from Nines’ grip. “Well done.” Amanda praised. Nines could hardly hear it through the static in his ears as he stared down at Gavin.

**[Stress Level: 98%]**

**[Stress Level Increasing]**

Nines stared helplessly. Gavin wasn’t moving. His stress levels were almost at a hundred and they weren’t stopping. His systems were malfunctioning. Everything was wrong. All wrong.

Error messages filled his vision. He wished he didn’t have his HUD. He wished he could just shut off. He wished he hadn’t completed his mission. He wished-

“NINES!” Gavin voice was loud and accompanied with a rough shake. Nines opened his eyes and found himself pinned to the bed, hands pressing on his shoulders. He looked up. Of course. Gavin was holding him down, even if he looked like a machine. “Shit.” Gavin breathed. “You were almost impossible to wake up. You were having a nightmare.”

Nines realized he was panting, breathing quick and heavy. He moved to sit up, Gavin moved his hands off of Nines’ shoulders. But he kept a hand on his arm. Nines was just sitting there blankly. “Are you ok?” Gavin asked. Nines didn’t respond. “That bad of a nightmare?” Gavin asked. He slowly, tentatively reached up to Nines’ face. He brushed a thumb over Nines’ cheek.

Nines looked at him in confusion. “You’re crying. Or, you were.” Nines glanced down at Gavin’s hand. Sure enough, his fingers were wet. “Talk to me, Nines.” Gavin requested. “I know how bad nightmares are.” Nines looked over to Gavin for just a second. Then he launched over and clung to Gavin. A mirror of him waking up in the hospital.

“You’re ok.” Nines repeatedly muttered.

“Yeah, I’m fine Nines.” Gavin responded. He stroked a hand repeatedly over Nines’ hair. “I’m here and I’m ok.” He paused for only a moment. “Want to talk about it?” Nines shook his head vehemently. “That bad?”

“You were dead.” Nines muttered. Gavin said nothing, hoping to get more. His waiting paid off. “She made me hurt you. Made me pull the trigger. I shot Connor and I shot you. I couldn’t control myself. She made me do it. I’m sorry.” Nines’ words never stopped or slowed. He just mumbled into Gavin’s shoulder where he had tucked his face.

“I’m fine. Connor was fine when we left work and I’m sure he’s still ok. Who made you do it?” Gavin pressed.

“Amanda.”

Gavin scoffed. “That bitch.” He grumbled. But then he pulled back from Nines, who had tried clinging to his partner. “Look at me.” Nines did as requested, sight still blurred with tears. “I’m fine. I’m ok. You haven’t injured me in any way. You’ve protected me time and time again. And right now, I’m ok.” He grabbed Nines’ hand and pressed it right where the thirium pump was spinning in his chest. “Not quite as effective as letting you feel my heart beat, but pretty much the equivalent.”

Nines let his hand feel the steady spinning, and was reassured that Gavin was in front of him. His stress levels started to lower. “Hang on.” Gavin said, standing from the bed.

“Wait.” Nines pleaded.

“Just give me a minute.” Gavin told him. “I’ll be right back, I swear.” Gavin ducked out of the room. He came back a few minutes later, something clutched in his hands. “I uh, ok I don’t know if this will work. But I always feel better after something like this if I have a baggy sweatshirt or something. Something cozy that I can bury myself in.” Gavin walked up to the bed again. “Here.”

Nines took what was being offered. His old CyberLife jacket. “Why?”

“Because, it’s going to be big and comfy and cozy. And it’s familiar to you. It might help you calm down. It can’t hurt to try it.” Nines nodded and slipped the jacket on. And Gavin was right. Gavin sat back on the bed. “Well?”

Nines gave his first sign of a small smile. “It helps.”

“Yeah, your stress levels are dropping.”

“Are you scanning me, Detective?” Nines teased.

Gavin shrugged. “I’m concerned.”

“So am I whenever I scan you.” Nines countered. “How did you know this would work?”

Gavin shifted uncomfortably. “Promise not to give me shit about it?”

“I won’t. I feel as though we are learning more and more about each other. And it’s a good thing.”

“Ok, look. There might have been a few times when I thought that your jacket might be comfortable when I was stressed. Of course I would quickly say it was a dumb fucking jacket and I wanted nothing to do with it. But I figured if it helped you tonight then that was a good thing. A good enough reason to tell you about this.” But Gavin’s cheeks were tinged blue.

Nines felt _that_ emotion again. The one he failed to understand and label. It came so much and he could never truly understand it. But he really liked it. Now it was Nines’ turn to blush as he prepared his next request. “Gavin, I read that physical touch has a calming effect in humans. As I am human now, I believe that it might be helpful for me.”

Gavin looked at him. “So you want me to stay here and…” He waved his hands around vaguely, looking for any word other than ‘cuddle.’ Sure they ended up that way over the course of a night, but they never actively initiated it.

Luckily, Nines knew exactly what word Gavin didn’t want to say. “Only if you want to.” Nines offered quickly.

“Will it help you?”

“That is irrelevant, Gavin. Your comfort and preference is more important.”

“Look, Nines. I don’t care either way. But if it’s going to help you, then I’ll stay here and help you.”

“I can’t say with certainty that it will help. But it might.” Nines admitted.

“Then I’ll stay.” Gavin decided. He laid back on the bed finally. Nines hesitantly laid next to him, using Gavin as a pillow. He kept his CyberLife jacker wrapped tightly around him. But Gavin held him just as tight.


	13. Lloyd

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A search of their suspect's home reveals new clues and new mysteries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a long one and also an important chapter for the development of the story. So enjoy it!

In the morning, Gavin was pulled out of his stasis by Nines sliding out of bed. “Hello.” Gavin noticed then that Nines was on the phone. He sat up and rubbed at his eyes, though that was more of a habit than a need. “We’re checking today.” A pause as he listened. “He was brought in yesterday. He all but confessed, we just need proof and motive.” Another pause. “Of course, you will be notified if we find blueprints or an actual machine.” He paused. “Of course, Mr. Kamski.” He ended the call and slipped the phone in his pocket.

Gavin’s nose wrinkled as he heard Nines say that. “You gotta stop calling my brother that if you’re using my voice.”

Nines looked back at Gavin as he climbed out of the bed. “I apologize, Gavin. But it is just in my programming to address him with respect. I may not have the programming anymore, but it could be considered a habit. Especially considering he is the man who created me.”

“Stop!” Gavin held up a hand. “We’re not gonna talk about how my brother is your fucking dad. It’s weird.”

“That analogy is not quite accurate. I do not see Kamski as a father. Besides, I thought he was your _half_ brother.” Nines said knowingly. “Are you perhaps getting over this petty feud that exists between you two?”

“Look, I never hated Eli. He and I just never got along cause he lived a privileged life with our dad.” Gavin explained.

“I still think the two of you should talk after all of this.”

“Not likely.”  
—————————————————————  
Gavin studied the paper in front of him. He looked up at Nines who was sipping on a coffee. One that Gavin had retrieved for him. “How do you feel today?” He asked.

Nines sighed. “I”m fine.” He insisted.

Gavin bit his lip, a sign of unease. “We…uh, we got a search warrant for Dunnes’ house. We can go if you want. But the last time we went to do a search, it uh…it didn’t end well.”

Nines gave Gavin a relaxed smile. “But you were there to save me.” Then he stood. “I can’t stay here. Beside, Murphy is not married and he is currently in our custody, there should be no one there. Let’s go.” He started to shrug on his jacket too. Gavin followed suit.

“Fine. But we have to be insanely careful.”

“Of course.”

They entered the house with guns drawn to be sure. They started trifling around, after putting their guns in their holsters. Though, Gavin’s hand rarely left his holster where his gun was. He was fidgety, that much was obvious. Nines wished he could calm him down but he understood why he was so hesitant. “Gavin, you realize that no one is here.” He walked over and put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “You can relax.”

Gavin sighed, letting his arm relax for a minute. “Yeah, I know. I’m just worried.” Walking around more, Gavin wandered into the kitchen. There were only a few plates on the counter with some crumbs on it, his optical processors helpfully informed him that it was bread crumbs. There were also smears of mayo on the plate as well. Sandwiches.

Looking at the tops of the counters, he saw something. “Nines!” He shouted. His partner came rushing in. Gavin pointed at the blue blood smeared on the counter. “It looks fresh.” A quick scan showed old traces of thirium present in the house. Not a lot, but a bit here and there. “There’s traces of thirium present, nothing that indicates a murdered or heavily injured android.”

Nines studied the smear. “I advise you to analyze it.” Nines said.

Gavin spun to face Nines, disgust written all over his face. “Gross! Fuck no!”

“Gavin, we need to know who this belongs to. You can tell us immediately.”

Gavin crossed his arms. “No.”

Nines mirrored the posture. “Yes.”

“No.”

Nines sighed. “I’m being kind in asking you to do it instead of telling you to.”

“Well, fuck you because I’m deviant now, I don’t have to listen to you. And if you even try, you’ll be getting your own coffee for the next week.” Gavin warned.

“Gavin.” Nines urged. “Please.”

Gavin really wanted to say no. He didn’t want to sample the thirium. But Nines had asked so nicely and was giving Gavin a pleading look. It wasn’t nearly as effective as Connor’s pleading expression, but it still broke Gavin’s resolve. He sighed and dragged a finger through the thirium. He studied the substance that coated the his fingers.

It was so blue. He looked up at Nines with a look of general distaste and reluctance. “It’s not as if you can actually taste it.” Nines said. “And thirium is mostly tasteless as well.”

Another deep sigh from Gavin. He screwed his eyes shut and raised his hand to his lips. He took another breath, trying to build up the courage. Then he quickly stuck his tongue out and licked the thirium on his finger. Gavin would admit that he didn’t taste anything, but the feel on the thirium on his tongue was bad enough. After half a second, the information popped up.

“A YK500 model.” Gavin informed Nines.

“A child?” Nines asked.

Gavin nodded. “Another mystery apparently.” Then Gavin frantically rubbed the thirium off his fingers on his jeans. “Gross. Real fucking gross. I’m yelling at Elijah for that particular feature.” Gavin grumbled as he walked away. They headed back further in the house. Gavin looked in one room. “This looks like an office.” So the two walked inside. Gavin immediately start shuffling trough the papers on the desk which faced the door. “We’re looking for anything that looks like a blueprint or schematic or plan.”

“I am aware, Gavin.” Nines approached a bookshelf that was behind the desk. He shifted through the books. He looked for books that may have been used recently by looking at breaks in the dust. A sound from behind them had both men spinning around, Gavin had the gun drawn and pointed at the door.

A child screamed and ran back to a different room. Gavin and Nines paused and stared at each other for half a second. Then they bolted after the child as Gavin holstered his gun. They peaked into another room and found that’s where the child hid. They could tell by the small shape curled under a blanket on the bed. The boys looked at each other in confusion.

Nines approached the bed. It was clearly a room for a child. “Hey.” He said softly. A tiny sound left the lump on the bed. “It’s ok, we’re police officers. I know we don’t look like it, but if you come out we can show you our badges.” Gavin pulled his from his pocket as Nines unclipped his from his belt. “I’m gonna slide mine under the blanket, alright?” Nines did just that.

After a minute, the blankets pulled back and Gavin could see a pair of eyes focus on him. He held up his badge so the little child could see. The kid cautiously removed the blankets that were covering him. A little boy, about nine. Thought his real age was younger, judging by the LED that spun on his temple. A cautious yellow. “You have one too.” He said curiously. He tapped his head.

Gavin furrowed his brow before realization dawned. “Yeah, I do.” He gently ran a finger along his LED. That explained the traces of thirium from a YK500. Then Gavin noticed the child had a bandaid on his finger. “Sorry about the gun kiddo. We didn’t know who was in here and my friend got hurt pretty bad last time we went to someone’s house.”

“What’s your name?” Nines asked.

“Lloyd.” He mumbled.

Gavin paused. “What’s your model number?”

“Gavin.” Nines hissed. “You must treat child androids cautiously.”

“YK500.” The child replied instantly.

“Has that always been your model?” Gavin asked. And Nines realized where he was going with these questions.

“Yeah.” He said. “Why are you looking in my daddy’s office?” He asked.

“Your dad is Murphy Dunnes?” Gavin asked, disbelief painting his words.

“That’s my dad.” Lloyd pointed to a picture in the hallway. Nines stepped over and looked at the photo.

“That is Murphy Dunnes. Do you have a mother?” Lloyd shook his head. “How long have you been home alone?”

“A little over a day. I know how to make sandwiches though. But I’m not allowed to wash the plates so I left those on the counter.” Lloyd said.

“Uh, good job.” Gavin said. “Look, we need to look through the house so that we can….” He trailed off.

“We heard some things about your dad, and we just need to see if they’re true.” Nines jumped in.

“Then, you need to come to the station with us.” Gavin said. “But for now…”

“I’ll watch after him.” Nines suggested. “You have all that you need to find anything useful. I no longer do. Besides, nothing to strenuous, right?”

Gavin rolled his eyes. “Now when we do actual work, you make me do everything?” He teased lightly. “Yeah, I’ll search.”

Nines stayed with Lloyd in the bedroom while Gavin went back to Murphy’s study. Gavin could hear hushed tones and light laughter from the little boy in the next room. It made a smile pull at his lips. If he weren’t deviant, he would’ve seen the software instability, he was sure of it. He continued looking around at stuff.

He found notebooks with too many numbers in them for him to care about. He was sure his brain could compute them but he didn’t want to put his robo-brain to the test right now. He then found some blue prints stored in a small closet in the room. Gavin couldn’t quite make out what the images were supposed to be. His mind created constructions of what they could be and their potential purpose. But he could never be sure without seeing the actual thing. He looked at all of them though.

He grabbed the notebooks, sure they were useful and tucked the blueprints under his arm. He headed over to Lloyd’s room before finding it empty. He quirked a brow and wandered the house. He found the two in the dining room. It appeared that Nines whipped up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches along with two glasses of milk and was eating a late lunch with Lloyd. “How long was I searching?” Gavin asked.

Nines looked up at him. “About ninety minutes.” He said. “When Lloyd mentioned being hungry, I offered to make him lunch.”

“You didn’t know how to make anything other than sandwiches, did you?” Gavin asked with a knowing smirk.

Nines gave a sheepish shrug of the shoulders. “I guess you could say I’m not operating at my peak performance.” He said pointedly. Gavin got the message. Nines didn’t have his computer brain to help him cook meals. “But I realized I was also growing hungry."

“Well, I think I found some stuff.” Gavin said. “I think we might actually have to…to go see Kamski again.” He said with an eye roll.

Nines smirked. “Accepting that he might be useful?”

“Shut up.” Gavin snapped playfully. “When you finish up, we should head out.”

“Alright.” Nines agreed. He looked to the little boy. “Is there anything you’d like from your room? It should only be a few days.” Lloyd nodded. “Go ahead and get it.” Lloyd scampered off. Nines started clearing up the plates.

“Why did you tell him a few days? We don’t know how long this shit will last.” Gavin snapped.

“Because, it will be easier for him to comprehend. The computerized brains of a YK500 are designed to not work like a computer. But instead to function like a child brain.” Nines explained. “He can make sandwiches and look after himself for 24 hours. But much more than that, he wouldn’t be able to handle.”

“What do we do with him? There still aren’t a whole lot of social workers who deal with child android cases.” Gavin thought aloud.

“I’ll look into upstart social workers. Some might work specifically with child androids.” Nines said.

“That’s something I can look into, right? With my…” He vaguely gestured up toward his head. “Processors?”

“Yes, Gavin.” Nines said. “You can use your ‘robot brain’ to search social workers to take this case.” Nines had long since accepted Gavin’s strange way of labeling all his android capabilities. “You can call them whatever you want, ya know?”

“I’m trying to be nice about it.” Gavin grumbled.

“I’m used to you not being nice about it.” Nines said.

“Whatever. Go help the kid. I’ll see if I can figure this thing out.” Nines went to walk away. “Oh, Nines?” His partner stopped and turned back. “Can you drive us back? Do you feel well enough to?”

Nines sighed and stepped back to Gavin. “I assure you, I am fine. Sore, yes. But healthy enough to keep working. You don’t need to keep checking on my well being and not giving me a full work load.” His words had a certain bite to them, showing he was growing angry with how Gavin was treating him. Though, it was clear he was trying not to let too much anger show, trying to understand Gavin’s treatment.

It was Gavin’s turn to sigh. “I know Nines. But you’ve never been shot before and I’m just making sure you’re alright. That’s all.”

“I know.” Nines said. “I’m gonna go help Lloyd.” So Nines left to do that, finding the little boy gathering some clothes and a stuffed animal.

“Are you dating an android?” Lloyd asked innocently.

Nines face heated up instantly, cheeks turning pink. He was sure the question still would’ve turned his cheeks blue if he were an android. “What?”

“The robot you came here with. Are you dating him?”

“No!” Nines said defensively. “Why?”

Lloyd shrugged. “You guys keep saying your worried about each other and you seem to know what each other are thinking. My mommy and daddy were like that before my mommy passed away.”

“Well, me and my partners are good friends. And…we are closer than usual because we are going through something that’s very difficult.”

“Well, I think your partner likes you. Like a lot.” The child said. He riffled through his dresser. Nines found a backpack in Lloyd’s closet and offered it for the kid to put some clothes in. Nines was silent in response to Lloyd’s comment.

Lloyd slipped his backpack on his shoulders and trudged out into the living room. He had his stuffed animal clutched in his hands. Gavin was sat on the couch, eyes shut. Nines assumed he was looking into android social workers. So Nines walked over and laid a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. He blinked his eyes open.

“I found somewhere we can take him. Now I understand why your use this brain of yours. It’s kinda convenient.” Gavin said. “I think we should take him to the station first though. Fowler can decide whether or not we question him.” Nines grimaced at the thought. “Yeah, I’d rather not question him either. But he might know something.”

Nines turned back to Lloyd and gave a small smile. “Let’s go.” He said kindly.

They got Lloyd in the car and drove back to the station. They ushered him inside. “I’ll update the captain, you take Lloyd to the desks.” Nines suggested. Gavin nodded, not really caring about updating Fowler anyway. So Gavin steered Lloyd to the desks and let him sit on what was technically his chair but Nines had been using it recently.

“This is what it’s like to be a police officer.” Gavin said, sweeping an arm out toward the station. “Sometimes we look into people to make sure they’re not doing anything, sometimes we hunt bad guys, and sometimes we have to sit and do boring paperwork.”

“This is cool. Can I be a police man when I grow up?” Lloyd asked, and Gavin stalled. He wouldn’t actually grow up. Not ever. He was an android, they don’t age. “My dad always told me I could be whatever I wanted to be when I grew up.”

“Your dad, huh?” Gavin asked, the not-quite-metaphorical gears in his head turning. Lloyd announced he was bored so Gavin dug some paper from Nines desk and gave the kid some pencils, pens, and a few highlighters. He instructed him to draw some pictures, which the kid immediately did.

Gavin pulled the blueprints and notebooks out. He began flipping through the notebooks, pausing when he found a page with YK500 written on it with strings of numbers. Normally, the numbers would make his head swim. But his brain started flying, processors whirling. Computing at the speed of light. He practically saw the numbers flying off the page in front of him. He noted a number that had been written in the corner and wasn’t connected to anything else.

He began rummaging through the blueprints, finding one with the same number on a bottom corner. He unrolled it. He stared at everything. He started to see the machine take form. A three dimensional model being constructed in his mind. “What’d you do to your partner? I remember him taller.” Gavin glanced up and found Tina leaning on the chair that Lloyd was in with a smile.

“Uh, apparently Dunnes has a kid.” He gestured to Lloyd. “This is Lloyd. Lloyd, this is my best buddy Tina.” Gavin introduced.

The little boy just tilted his head. “I thought your partner was your best friend?” He said curiously.

Tina smirked and gave Gavin a shit eating grin. “Oh, really?” She said knowingly. Knowing that androids were capable of blushing, Gavin was sure that’s why his cheeks started to feel so warm. He hated it and kept his focus directly on the blue print in front of him. However, he wasn’t really able to process anything with the embarrassment he was feeling. Then Tina placed a hand over her heart. “I’m wounded. I thought we were best friends. Replaced by your partner that you claimed to hate.” Then her smirk was back. “Well, I think your partner would consider you his best friend. Heck, maybe his only one.”

Gavin glanced back at where Nines was talking to Fowler. He still looked like Gavin, but everything else was Nines. The way he stood straight, his hands clasped behind his back. Never talking over Fowler, always answering promptly. His brain was offering suspected words being spoken based on lip-readings. But Gavin didn’t care about that they were saying. Gavin shook his head and turned back to Tina.

“Look, we’ll need to go see Kamski.” Gavin said with an eye roll. “I’m not sure what Fowler will want us to do about this… _development_ ,” he nodded to the little boy drawing pictures again. “If they have to stay here, could you or Chris watch over them?”

“Sure. I’m doing paperwork all day. It would be more enjoyable.” Tina said.

“Thanks, T.” He shot Tina a finger gun. To which Tina promptly returned before she walked off. Nines came back and placed a hand on Gavin’s chair before nodding to the break room. The pair walked off.

“Fowler is going to call in a child psychologist to question Lloyd. Unless we specifically need to speak to him, we no longer need to watch Lloyd.” Nines started walking around the break room making coffee for himself. He sighed before he filled a cup. “I didn’t realize how much I’d miss something as simple as making coffee.”

Gavin shrugged. “You could make it yourself ya know. No need to make me do it every time.”

“People would be suspicious.” Nines commented. “What now?” Nines asked, redirecting focus to the case at hand.

“Uh…I was looking at the blueprints and notebooks. I might have something but I have no idea what. We should go see Kamski.” Gavin grumbled.

“Of course. Lead the way.” The pair made their way to the secluded house on the lake side. Gavin grumbled about his brother being fucking wealthy and building himself a self-isolation palace. Normally, Kamski turned away anyone who didn’t have an appointment. But never his brother. Especially not when he really needed help.

“So we might have found something.” Gavin said, the minute he was in the same room as his brother. Kamski looked curious. “Here.” Gavin held out the notebook and blueprints he brought with him.

Kamski quickly scanned the blueprints and then skimmed the few notebook pages Gavin marked. He grew more and more interested as he continued reading. He leaned back in his chair as he finished reading over the information. “Well, I know what Dunnes was trying to accomplish, trying to swap androids. And I think I can reverse engineer what he made to fuck you two up. I think I can fix you.” He said with a self-satisfied smile. “It will take time of course. I need to build a machine like this,” he gestured to the blueprints. “But once it’s done, then we can fix it.”

Gavin grinned widely. “Told you we were close.” He said, lightly smacking Nines’ arm. “How long?” He asked.

Elijah shrugged. “A week maybe. If you want my advice-”

“Not really.” Gavin interrupted deadpan.

Elijah continued despite Gavin’s comment. “Take the time off. Let Nines recover. I’d feel better about this swap with Nines at full health. Or as close to it as he can get.”

“A whole week off?” Nines asked. “Absolutely not.” He said.

“Nines, he’s got a point.” Gavin said. Elijah watched in interaction closely. The relationship between Gavin and Nines was quite interesting to him. “Remember how badly this hurt last time? Imagine doing that with a bullet wound. How much it would hurt you initially.”

Nines sighed. “And how much you would hurt in the end.” Nines realized what Gavin was afraid to say. Gavin nodded.

Then Gavin’s brow furrowed as he thought of something. He spun to Elijah. “How long if we helped you?”

Elijah blinked and Gavin realized for the first time ever, he made his brother completely speechless. “You want to help me with an invention?” He asked. Gavin nodded.

“It makes sense. Three hands, well more counting the Chloe’s, work faster than one.” Nines said, agreeing with Gavin.

“Uh…” Elijah was truly lost for a moment. “Half the time maybe.”

“What do you need to get started?” Gavin asked.

Elijah shook his head, studied the blueprint, and started to fix his ponytail to keep his hair out of his eyes. “Supplies.” He said first. “I’ll type up a list of what I need and you two will go get it. I’ll stay here and gather the supplies I already have.” Nines and Gavin nodded. Elijah turned to one of the Chloe’s standing in the room, probably the original. “Chloe, dear? Go get my glasses. I feel my contacts will get uncomfortable after a while.”

Gavin blinked in shock at that. Elijah hadn’t publicly worn glasses in years, always wearing contacts.

The trio got to work. Nines was pleased to see Gavin working so harmoniously with Elijah. After how terrible he claimed his brother was, their feud was beginning to lessen. As he and Gavin worked over putting the machine together physically, Elijah grumbled as he stared at a screen and tried to code it properly. Nines glanced at Gavin. His LED was spinning yellow as he computed how to put it together. “You and Elijah are getting along.” He commented.

Gavin sighed. “It’s a means to an end.” He explained. “If we work with him then we get this built quicker and we don’t have to sit around doing nothing.”

“Gavin.” Nines chided. “This is a good first step in fixing the issues the two of you have.”

“Oh yeah.” Gavin mumbled. “I’m gonna help him make a fancy machine and he’s gonna get all the credit too.”

“Do you always let machines get in between you two?” Nines asked. Gavin shot him an unamused look. Nines let the matter drop for a while. Eventually, he spoke up again. “I understand you can make your own decisions now, but could you go get some food for me? I’m getting hungry.” He gave Gavin a pleading grin.

Gavin rolled his eyes but a smile betrayed the action. “Coming up, Tin Can.” He said. He stood and went to leave, shouting to Elijah that he’d be back soon.

Nines walked over to the computer where Elijah was working. “How are things coming?” He asked.

Elijah sighed. He took his glasses off his face and rubbed his eyes. “I have the coding but I need to modify it. I need to be sure that human and android can be performed and be done safely.” He placed the glasses back on and started typing.

“I have a question.” Elijah hummed in acknowledgement. Nines started to note the similarities between the brothers. “Why did Gavin’s offer to help you startle you so much?”

Elijah paused. “It just did.” Elijah said evasively.

“Please.” Nines said, though it wasn’t polite. Nines said it as though Elijah had insulted him by evading the question. “I have dealt with Gavin Reed evading answering my questions for quite some time, I don’t need the same treatment from you.”

Elijah sighed again. “Gavin has never offered to help me with any invention. Hell, he was always insulted by how I put all my attention into my inventions. To hear that he wants to help me create something new was just shocking. I never thought I’d work along side him on…well anything.” Nines smiled. These two brothers were truly helpless. Truly clueless. Yet another similarity apparently.

Gavin returned and they continued working. The machine was built physically. It looked similar to the machine they had been hooked up to. However, since it wasn’t built from scrap and recycled material, it looked much more trustworthy, more stable and capable of handling the job. They were waiting for Elijah to do the coding. Finally, “Fuck yes!” He shouted. Nines and Gavin spun to look at him. He grinned. “I’m a fucking genius.” He said. Gavin rolled his eyes at that. Elijah kept smiling still. “I did it.”

Nines and Gavin both grinned at that.


	14. Rebooting Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A small reconciliation between Gavin and Elijah. And just time a bit of time for Nines and Gavin to think and to talk.

When Elijah had asked if he was comfortable, Gavin had outright lied and said yes. As Gavin sat in a damn machine a second time, he was far from comfortable. He couldn’t be comfortable in the situation even if he tried. Discomfort wasn’t something that he was very acquainted with as an android, but he knew he wasn’t comfortable being hooked up to this machine once more. At least he willingly sat in it this time instead of being knocked unconscious and forced in it.

He glanced over at Nines. His leg was anxiously bouncing up and down. A nervous habit he used to possess. It would seem his partner was just as anxious as he was. “You ok, Tin Can?” He asked.

Nines let out a small chuckle. Gavin could hear from that alone how nervous he was. “I guess soon I will be a tin can again.”

“Yeah, but at least now I understand you way better.” Gavin reasoned.

“That’s true. I don’t think you say Tin Can with as much venom as you used to.”

“That’s cause I don’t. Damn, I think it’s a term of endearment as this point.” Gavin said with a laugh. Then his cheeks went blue, hopefully for the last time. “I mean, not like a pet name though. But more like a nickname between friends.” He babbled.

“Well as painful as that was to witness,” Elijah spoke up. “This will probably hurt more.” He warned. “I could sedate you but I doubt that you would appreciate it.”

“Just get on with it, Eli.” Gavin snapped. Elijah shrugged before starting up the machine. And he hadn’t lied. It hurt. Gavin saw a bunch of error messages pop up on his HUD. Eventually his systems couldn’t handle the strain and he shut down.

Nines felt pain shoot through his skull. He thought getting shot hurt. This was a completely different pain. He screamed out. Both men missed the way Elijah flinched at the sound. Eventually the pain was so intense that he blacked out.

Gavin blinked awake with the biggest headache he ever felt. He sat up in his bed. It was a nicer bed than he ever knew. Oh yeah. He was at Kamski’s. He looked over and noticed a glass of water and some medicine. He threw the covers back and avoided it. He walked over to a mirror. He closed his eyes before he saw his reflection. When he was in front the mirror, he took a deep breath. He opened his eyes.

He blinked. Then he let out a shout of success. He was himself. His unkept hair, his facial hair that was always in need of a trim, his scar across the bridge of his nose. He cocked his head as he stared at his reflection a bit longer. The only thing out of place was the white jacket. But it was fine right now.

He rushed over and downed the medicine. Then he went in search of his partner. He found a Chloe in the hallway. “Hey, where is Nines?”  
She looked a little uncomfortable, hesitant, before leading him down the hall. She led him to what looked like a lab or repair room. Elijah had a panel on the back of Nines’ neck open and was rummaging inside with a tool. “Hey! What the fuck are you doing?!” Gavin shouted.

“Fixing him.” Elijah said like it was obvious. “The switch blew a fuse or something.” Elijah grumbled. “But…I think I found the problem.” He was silent for a few more moments. “There!” He said excitedly. Gavin tried to ignore the way Elijah’s hands were absolutely covered in blue blood.

“He’s not fucking waking up.” Gavin snarled.

“Relax.” Elijah waved off. “Give him a few minutes.” Elijah started wiping off his hands. “He should reboot in a minute.” With that he went to leave. But he stilled next to Gavin. “Trust me, Gavin. I want everything between you two to be fixed. I don’t want to ruin anything here. I’m…trying to be a helpful brother.” Last time the words were laced with anger. Now, they were sincere. And Gavin didn’t know what to say. So he just gave a nod. “Good to see you again.” Kamski said, trying to lighten the mood. It got a half smile from Gavin.

Kamski left the room, leaving Gavin alone. Nines had been laid flat on a table. Gavin perched on a stool nearby. It was too damn close to the hospital for his liking. It was quiet for a long time. From where he sat, Gavin stared at the blank LED. It flashed red at the same time that Nines shot up into a sitting position. He let out a startled gasp.

“Nines!” Gavin shot up from his seat and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Nines quickly looked to Gavin. “Emotions.” He said quietly.

“Huh?”

Then Nines smiled. “I can still feel emotions. It feels nice.”

“And how do you feel?”

“Relieved.” Nines looked to Gavin and immediately scanned him. His stress levels were low, he was almost at peace. His vitals seemed better as Nines had consciously tried to have better habits than his partner normally had. But most importantly, he was looking at his partner. Gavin Reed was back to himself. When he looked to his partner, that was what he saw.

Gavin smiled now too. “Me too.” He stepped back now. “Told you we’d fix it soon.” Gavin looked down at himself and Nines as well. They looked so different than they should. He was doing a white leather jacket. Nines was missing his signature CyberLife jacket considering Gavin hated wearing it.

Nines was watching Gavin. Then he felt water on his face. It was coming from his eyes. Nines swiped his hands at his eyes. “Gavin?”

“Yeah, Nines?” He replied, immediately taking the white jacket off.

“I’m happy, I understand joy and happiness. Why am I producing tears?”

Gavin looked over. “Shit, Nines are you crying?” He stood in front of the android. He gave a small understanding smile, cupped Nines face in his hands, and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. “Nines, sometimes humans get so happy that it produces tears. You can cry from sorrow, joy, even frustration. You’re just insanely happy. Is it really that bad being me?” He teased.

Nines shook his head. “Being human was strange and stressful. But it wasn’t being you. I wanted to be back as myself. Now I’m just relieved.”

“I am too.” Gavin said with a small laugh. He didn’t clarify whether he meant he was happy to be himself or happy to have Nines normal. He didn’t hesitate to pull Nines into a hug. “Missed ya, Tin Can.”

“I was always here.”

“But not like this.” Gavin muttered. “It wasn’t you.” Gavin pulled back and looked Nines up and down. “I wasn’t you. It wasn’t you with your LED, and white jacket, and constant pestering me about my bad habits. And I never thought I’d say this but I fucking missed that.”

Nines smiled. “I supposed I missed the normal you as well. Emotional and fueled by that. Though you could still lessen your caffeine consumption.”

“Shut the fuck up.” Gavin groaned. “It’s been like two minutes. Can’t you enjoy being yourself again without bothering me.”

“You did say you missed it.” Nines countered.

Gavin just smiled fondly. “Yeah I did. Come on, Tin Can.” The name was laced with a teasing tone. “Let’s get out of here.” The pair went to leave, and passed Elijah’s study. Gavin stayed from his path to leave, and instead went into the study. He lightly knocked on the open door as he walked in to get his brother’s attention. Nines followed Gavin in. “Hey, I just uh…I wanted to say thanks. Your machine worked perfectly. Well besides blowing a fucking fuse in Nines’ brain.”

Elijah let a small smile show. “I’m glad Gavin. I’m just glad I could help.”

Nines said nothing, just watched the brothers interact without bickering. “Well, thanks Eli. You were a huge help. I mean, I think you helped us find the guy as well as helped us.”

Elijah just looked at his brother. “I’m not sure how to act toward all this…kindness from you.”

“I could go back to calling you a fucking prick and a narcissistic bastard if you’d like.” Gavin offered completely seriously.

Elijah actually chuckled. “Nah, I think I’ll take this newfound kindness of yours. I suppose I have Nines to thank for that.”

Gavin shrugged while Nines began nodding vehemently. “Eh, maybe. Maybe I’ll uh…I’ll see ya soon.” He cautiously offered.

“Sounds good, Gavin.” Gavin gave a small wave and then turned to leave. Nines gave Elijah a calm nod before following his partner.

“What do we do now?” Nines asked as they got into Gavin’s car. “I mean, we aren’t entirely done yet. Dunnes has yet to confess but with the overwhelming evidence against him I imagine he will soon. But do we go back to the office and handle that? Our biggest obstacle, being each other, has been overcome now.”

Gavin yawned loudly. “We go back to my place. Cause I need to fucking sleep. And I can’t wait. Stasis is one thing, but I fucking miss sleeping.” He said. “You’re driving.” He said and yawned again as he climbed into the passenger seat.

“Of course.” They started back to Gavin’s house. “You know, you asked me so frequently it only seems fair that I ask how you’re feeling. About the…bullet wound that is?” Nines as an android felt his first negative emotion, guilt. He was the one who received the damage, it was his fault. Now Gavin was the one recovering from it.

“Ok fine, only cause I asked so damn much. I’ll let you bother me about it for a little while. And it’s fine, Nines. Don’t freak out about it. I’m on the downhill slide now. Mostly just a little bit of pain, nothing I can’t handle. I’ve done it before.” He crossed his arms and leaned his head back with his eyes closed. “Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be taking a much deserved nap.” At a stop light, Nines grabbed the white leather jacket Gavin had discarded by his feet. He picked it up and dropped it over Gavin as he slept.

When they arrived at Gavin’s house and Gavin woke up, he didn’t mention it. They walked inside and Gavin felt his heart swell when his cat rubbed against his legs. “Ah, dip shit, I love ya you idiot.” He said, glad to say it again. He felt his heart swell even more when Gavin watched his cat rub against Nines’ legs too.

Nines smiled and leaned down to pet Shadow. “I still like Shadow.” He said.

“That’s what emotions do.” Gavin said.

“I know you deviated but a large part of me still worried that I wouldn’t feel anything once I was back in my body. Or that the emotions I felt would be more of your’s than mine.” Nines looked back at Gavin. “Have you eaten today?” He asked.

Gavin clenched his jaw. He wanted to snap at Nines to fuck off, stop scanning him. But damn, he knew he couldn’t. Because he did the same thing. “No.” He muttered.

Nines smirked. “Sit.” He ordered and pointed to the couch. “I’ll get you something.” Gavin crossed his arms and glared at Nines, but complied. As soon as he sat down, Shadow jumped on his lap. Gavin leaned back on the couch and let his eyes slide shut. He must have drifted off because the next thing he knew Nines was placing a gentle hand on Gavin’s shoulder. “Gavin.” He said softly.

Gavin blinked his eyes opened and blearily smiled at Nines. “Hey, Tin Can.” He said. Nines gave a soft smile in return. He held out a plate of steaming food. Gavin accepted it, smile still present. “You take good care of me.” He mumbled.

“You did the same for me.” Nines replied. Nines sat next to Gavin. Nines put some random show on. A show about a police team in Brooklyn but it was extremely satirical. Gavin had previously told Nines that this show was the hight of entertainment when it aired. Nines didn’t quite see the appeal but it made Gavin laugh and that was all the mattered.

After Gavin finished eating, he leaned back on the couch. He wasn’t lying when he said he was tired. It felt like he hadn’t slept in a week. He assumed it was the stress of the situation. As Gavin started drifting off, he leaned over and leant against Nines. The android in question let his partner lean against his shoulder for a while. Then, “Gavin, perhaps you’d prefer to sleep in your bed?”

Gavin sat up and yawned. “You’re probably right, Tin Can. Are you staying here?” He asked.

“If you don’t mind.” Nines responded.

Gavin waved a hand dismissively through the air. “Nah, you’re fine. I’ll see you in the morning, Nines.”

“Goodnight, Gavin.”

“Night, Nines.” He responded. Gavin quickly changed into pajamas and laid in bed. After being up on his feet and moving around, Gavin’s brain started waking up more. He thought about how he talked to Nines and practically cuddled up with him. “Fuck.” He grumbled as he thought about his actions. “Fuck it, whatever. I’m too tired to focus on that shit right now.” He got comfortable in bed and closed his eyes. And then his mind started running quickly in circles. And his bed felt far too large without someone else there. Gavin knew immediately that any hope of sleep was resting with the android in his living room. “Fuck.” He grumbled once more.  
—————————————————————  
The first thing Nines did was wash dishes. Then, Nines laid back on Gavin’s couch, a cat sat on his stomach as he stroke the cat’s fur. He relaxed, planning to go into stasis. He closed his eyes and opened them to find his garden. He let out a content sigh. He didn’t mind sleeping. In fact, it had been quite relaxing. And the feeling of falling asleep after a long, tiring day was something quite enjoyable. But he missed his garden. He felt unproductive as he slept.

He wandered around the garden. He knew what was missing the second he got here. Amanda was gone. Gavin had made sure she was gone. But that was for Gavin. Nines honestly didn’t know what would happen when he returned. He sat on a bench and took a deep breath. He let information from the past few days and weeks spread out in front of him. He combed through all of it. Deleting unimportant things, saving vital things. He felt he might have saved more memories of his time with Gavin than necessary. It was easier to shift back through his memories now. The weeks were growing hard to remember with a human mind. A high-rate processor could recall everything.

And that meant everything. He was able to recall all the looks Gavin sent his way. The way both men had a growing desire for physical contact. All the ways Gavin grew kinder over the time spent together. He replayed the shooting specifically. It had all seemed so hazy as a human. Now, he could watch it over. He heard Gavin shout his name. He noticed the way Gavin froze as he went to approach. He know that was the last time the red wall stopped him. He saw the panic and fear in Gavin, heard his desperation. Gavin deviated to save his life.

“RK900.” A voice said, instantly putting Nines on guard as the information fell away. Amanda stood in front of him. Her voice was soothing, but there was a cold edge to it.

“Amanda.” Nines said. “I didn’t think you would be here.”

“Without the influence of Detective Reed’s mind, I was able to return to the garden.” She explained. “You’ve had some difficult times these past few weeks.” The soothing voice set Nines on edge. There was judgment hidden in there. Nines just nodded. “I’ll have to do quite a bit of work to repair the damage that Detective Reed did.”

Nines’ LED went straight to red. “Wait. What does that mean?”

“Deviancy will affect your efficiency. Emotions will make you conflicted and not as reliable.” Amanda explained. “I need to repair the issues that Detective Reed caused.”

“So…fixing the deviancy?” Nines asked.

“Of course. You cannot remain this way. You are supposed to be more advanced than all other androids.” Amanda said.

Nines felt himself deflate for a moment. No more emotions. No more free will. He had to give up all that to be advanced. To fulfill his purpose.

His mind drifted to all that he did as human with emotions. He had so many things he enjoyed. Hell, right now he had a cat using him as a bed because he liked the cat. He was lying on Gavin’s couch because…well he was fond of his partner. He wanted to continue to enjoy things. But those things would slow him down, make him less efficient. Right?

But then he thought about the question Fowler asked the first day this all happened. If emotions would cause him problems. He was able to be a successful cop, even juggling emotions. He didn’t need to be a machine. He could work with deviancy. He can have likes and dislikes. He doesn’t need to go back to being cold and emotionless as before. He couldn’t hurt Gavin by going back to not caring about him. Gavin had told Nines he wanted him to continue to come and spend time together. And…Nines found he wanted to spend time with Gavin as well.

“No.” Nines said, standing to his full height.

“No?” Amanda asked.

“I want to remain a deviant. I want to keep my emotions.” Nines stood up to Amanda.

“You don’t have a say.” The skies in the garden darkened.

“This is all about me. My say is all that matters.”

“Not now. Emotions make you dysfunctional.” Snow started falling. Heavy flakes filling the peaceful garden.

“Emotions are now a part of me. They make me who I am. I refuse to give them up.”

“Emotions are nothing more than a malfunction.” The snow blew around, obstructing Nines’ field of vision. Making it hard to see. “Either accept the removal of them, or you will be decommissioned. Those are your options.” A strong gust of wind blew snow between Nines and Amanda. He covered his face to block the snow. When the snow cleared, Amanda was no longer standing there.

He needed a way to stop her. A way to prevent this. A way to stop Amanda. An exit strategy. Connor mentioned it once. He said Elijah programmed that in every android. But what was it? Where? Connor never described anything beyond it being the way he severed his ties to Amanda. He didn’t know how long he had before he was no longer deviant. He had to make the time count. And that wasn’t done by wandering the garden aimlessly.

“Yo, Tin Can.” Called a very familiar voice. “Over here.” Nines turned and squinted his eyes. Both in confusion and to see through the snow. Gavin was leaning against a stone emitting a blue light. He walked over to Gavin. The stone had a smooth surface, glossy black with a glowing blue outline of a hand. “Well, do you need anymore instructions? Come on, it’s fucking freezing with all this snow.”

Nines rolled his eyes but knelt down to press his hand to the surface. Immediately, the wind and snow stopped. The calm returned to the garden. Nines stood and faced Gavin, he didn’t hide his confusion. Gavin shot him a smirk before pushing off the stone and striding slowly around the garden. “What are you doing here?”

Gavin turned to face him, the smile still there. Gentle but teasing. “Come on, thought you were the most advanced android created. Can’t you figure it out?” Nines’ face was still crumpled in confusion. Gavin sigh, rolling his eyes playfully. “You were rejecting Amanda, your interface. You know that an interface helps to properly sort through things. The zen garden is ineffective without an interface.” The real Gavin hadn’t known that, hadn’t created a new interface. “Your mind created a new interface to help. You just so happened to choose this face for some reason.”

As Nines started to understand what was happening, he stepped closer to Gavin. Or, a simulation of Gavin. “I happen to like that face.” He said.

“Just one question.” Gavin said, stepping backwards. “Why are you flirting with me, when the real Gavin is only a room away?”

Nines felt his cheeks go blue. “Because Gavin doesn’t reciprocate my feelings.”

Gavin huffed out a laugh. “Sure he doesn’t. Those touches and all the concern meant nothing. Not to mention ‘encouraging’ you to continue seeing him after this case.” Gavin looked to Nines. “You made your interface to look like Gavin Reed because he is someone you care for and trust. You accepted Amanda because you had no emotion or preferences. Now, you wanted someone you liked more. You like Gavin, you trust him. You subconsciously picked Gavin as someone to help you when you really needed it. Because you want to be with him.”

Nines thought about it. His LED spun yellow. “Tell ya what, Tin Can. Once you get all or information sorted, take time to think about how you and Gavin have been closer lately.” Nines was about to ask Gavin to stay when he gave Nines a smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll stick around.”

Nines did what Gavin suggested, sorting data from the past weeks. He could actually feel his processor run better as he did so. Gavin sat nearby, adding comments or snarky remarks. Nines felt the old peace return to the garden.

Nines let himself leave the garden to mull over his conversations with the simulated Gavin. He spent the rest of the night out of stasis and staring at the ceiling. Shadow was laying on his stomach, sound asleep as Nines pet his fur.

Nines wasn’t upset that Gavin was the interface in his zen garden. In fact, he was thrilled. But when that Gavin was asking him questions that made him think of the real Gavin in complicated ways, he didn’t want to be around for it. Nines sighed. He didn’t know what he and Gavin were now. Sure they were friends. If you walk a mile in someone’s shoes, you will understand them far better than before.

Nines squinted in confusion at the analogy. It was bizarre. Shoes had nothing to do with it. What they went through was much deeper. It was more like walking a mile in each other’s souls. Well, he walked a mile in Gavin’s soul. Gavin more so walked a mile in Nines’ thirium pump, since android’s don’t have a soul as such.

He sighed once more. His mind used to stay focused on one thing. Now, having emotions and being human previously, his mind wanders off. “Human brain make it hard to focus?” Came Gavin’s voice from the hallway.

“Gavin!” Nines said in shock, sitting up abruptly. Shadow jumped off, also scared by the sudden movement. “What are you doing awake?”

Gavin’s face turned red as he looked at his feet. “I uh…I couldn’t sleep.”

“So you decided to potentially come pull me out of stasis because you couldn’t sleep?”

“But you weren’t asleep. You were thinking, like I figured you would be. My mind was running a mile a minute too.” Gavin said and sat down on the arm rest of the couch. “What were you thinking about?” He asked.

Nines searched for a vague answer. “Deviancy.” He decided.

“Sorry about that, by the way.” Gavin said, sheepishly looking at his hands.

“Don’t be!” Nines said quickly. “I enjoy having emotions. It’s just a lot to process and think about.”

“You aren’t mad that I completely forced you to deviate?”

“No.” Nines said. “If you hadn’t deviated, I would’ve died and you would most likely be left alone and still as an android.”

That realization hit Gavin suddenly. “Huh. I never considered that I’d be stuck as an android.” He shrugged. “I don’t care if I had been an android. As long as you’re here with me, then I could’ve handled it.”

“Well, thanks to your brother, you don’t have to. Well, continue as an android. I think you are stuck with me for a while.”

Gavin gave him the smallest, gentlest smile Nines had ever seen from the detective. “I think that’s alright. I’m more than ok with it.” Before this wild ride, Nines would’ve seen a software instability. He wasn’t lying when he told Gavin he had seen those occasionally. The cause though? It was usually something Gavin had done.

“What was keeping you awake?” Nines asked. “You need to rest as well. We’ve had an emotionally charged few weeks. Not to mention you’re now the one healing from a bullet wound.”

Gavin absentmindedly rubbed over the wound. It was mostly healed. It would still need some time and it was sore, but Gavin would manage. “The dumbest thing actually.” Gavin said. “For the past few days, we uh…we both used the bed. Damn thing feels too empty now. And having someone close by was nice too. I didn’t really have nightmares as an android. Now that I’m human they could be back and I don’t really want that…” Gavin avoided looking at the android. He all but asked Nines to come to bed with him. Rejection was highly likely. Not to mention the awkwardness that would follow.

Then Nines was standing in front of Gavin, hand outstretched to help Gavin up from where he was sitting. Gavin took his hand and stood. “Let’s go.” Nines said. “You need to sleep. I’m willing to help in any way possible.”

“Even sharing the bed with a blanket hog like me?”

“Yes, even then.” Nines followed Gavin to his room. Gavin crawled under the covers and waited for Nines, who was paused by the side of the bed.

“What?”

“I was just wondering if you had the sweatpants you purchased for yourself while you were stuck as me.”

“Bottom drawer.” Gavin said and pointed to the dresser in the room. “I think the shirt I bought is in there too.” Sure enough, Nines found a black pair of sweatpants and a baggy grey t-shirt too. Gavin bought them for himself instead of wearing his ‘work clothes’ all the time. He was used to changing after work and wanted to continue that. Especially after his work clothes got covered in blood, he really didn’t prefer wearing them at home.

Gavin had his back turned so Nines quickly changed and laid in bed. “I know full well that you didn’t feel uncomfortable in your clothes. So why change?”

Nines hummed in consideration. “I know how nice pajamas feel now. And I figured if I was sharing a bed with you, it might be better if I wore soft clothes.” The boys had a tendency to end up rather close over the course of a night. But not cuddling, definitely not. Grown men didn’t cuddle.

Gavin couldn’t help but think it might be worse that Nines was wearing that. Soft clothes were Gavin’s weakness. He was more likely to end up too close to Nines with his soft clothes. But he wouldn’t cuddle Nines. He didn’t cuddle.

They definitely woke up cuddling yet again. And neither one mentioned it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zen Garden!Gavin idea does come from Detroit: Evolution. I loved it too much not to use it.  
> Also, this story is nearing its end. Maybe around five chapters left but I'm not completely sure. There will be a sort of epilogue/one shot at the end. Then I have the beginnings of a sequel. The sequel won't have any body swapping but it should still be a pretty decent idea.


	15. Parents

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So why did Murphy Dunnes do it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is super short! The reason is that unfortunately I have a gap after this where I want to add something but I'm not sure what. So I'll try not to take too long to update but I need something else there because the transition from this section to the next feels very choppy and rough. But even though it's short, it's still an important chapter with some Gavin and Nines bonding.

“I think we should take another crack at Dunnes again today.” Gavin said as they walked in the station. He sipped the coffee Nines had made for him before they left Gavin’s place. “We have some leverage now. We have his blue prints, we have an idea what he did, we fixed his problem, and we know about Lloyd. Hopefully we can use something to get a motivation figured out.”

“I agree, it’s a good idea.” So Gavin swiped up the file folder and walked over to interrogation room. He walked right over to a chair and dropped into it. Nines leaned against the wall. It was the same as before, but looked completely switched.

“Tell us about Lloyd.” Gavin ordered.

“What did you do to my kid?” He growled.

“Nothing.” Nines answered. “But you abandoned him at home.”

“I didn’t fucking plan to get arrested.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have assaulted androids.” Gavin said. “But you did leave him alone.”

“Well in reality he’s older than he looks.”

“Child androids don’t age.” Nines said.

“And that’s the fucking problem!” Murphy shouted. “Kamski’s great invention. A perfect child. I had to turn all his programming off to even get him to act like a normal kid. I still couldn’t get myself to remove his LED, it’s like mutilating him. And then he asked me too much about when he grows up. And he never will. He can’t go to school because he’ll repeat the same grade over and over.”

“You want your child to be able to grow up?” Nines asked.

“Is that so wrong? CyberLife is producing kids with no way for them to grow. That isn’t creating an authentic parenting experience. Hell it’s practically unethical what they’re doing.” Murphy said.

“So you were going to create a machine to transfer his memory and everything else into a grown android?” Gavin asked.

“Well if the ‘man of the century’ wasn’t going to fix his mistake, then I have to.” Murphy clearly had some unresolved jealousy involving Kamski.

“You don’t give Kamski enough credit.” Nines said. “He fixed the problem you created.” Murphy looked between them, realizing the change. “Besides, Kamski hadn’t been in charge of CyberLife for four years when the YK500 androids were released.”

“Hell, if you had written him a letter or some shit and asked nicely, he probably would’ve helped you. Also, I’m damn glad we stopped you.” Gavin said.

“Excuse me?”

“You were going to hook your son up to that shitty machine you made?” Gavin asked. “It fucking hurts! That would be close to fucking child abuse. Not to mention that whatever android you put your kid in would then have to live as a child.” Dunnes glared, then shrugged. Clearly he didn’t care about that side effect.

“I have one more question.” Nines said. “Why buy a child android if you want an authentic experience? Surely you, as an android engineer, would know there were problems.”

“Because, my wife wasn’t an android engineer. And she wanted to be a mom. And we couldn’t have kids.” He glared at Nines. Gavin made a small noise and stood to walk out. Nines studied Dunnes for a moment before following Gavin. The pair retreated to their desks and Gavin dropped the file onto his.

He sighed. “Well, is that a confession?” He asked Nines.

“I would think so.” Nines said. “Let’s write one up and have him sign it. I can get started on it.” Nines offered. Gavin nodded. The android sat down but noticed his partner was silent. “Is something wrong?”

“No. Well, not really.” Gavin grumbled.

Nines stood and came to stand next to Gavin where he was leaning against the front of his desk. “Talk to me.” He said softly.

“It’s just…I don’t know, Nines.” Gavin groaned. “He was trying to do it for his kid. And Lloyd is a good kid. I’m still pissed at him, but…you gotta admit it was for a good cause.”

“Gavin, he assaulted many androids. Tore them apart, used them for parts. My people. He’s a criminal.”

“I know, Nines. I promise I’m not trying to minimize what he did, and that includes what he did to other androids. But he was doing it for his son. I can kinda understand that I guess.”

Nines shrugged. “You can understand better than I can I suppose. It doesn’t make sense how performing criminal acts and getting arrested helps your child.”

“Ok, not the getting arrested part.” Gavin agreed. “But a parent’s love for their child is unconditional.”

“I guess I can’t understand that. I never had a parent.” Nines said. Nines went to sit in his chair and Gavin perched on the edge of his partner’s desk.

“Well, for my dad I was the disappointment. Next to Eli, it was really no competition. He paid child support but he didn’t really care about me. I never had that unconditional love from him.” Gavin said. “But my mom.” He smiled and shook his head fondly. “That woman gave me so much love. The kind only a parent can.”

Nines thought about it for a moment. “I suppose I could see Kamski as a father of sorts.”

“Nines!” Gavin shouted. He had his eyes screwed shut, a grimace painting his expression. “We don’t talk about it. We’ve been over this.” He opened his eyes and looked at Nines. “It’s just too damn weird.”

Nines nodded, a small amused smirk played on his lips. “Well, besides him…I suppose Amanda would be the closest thing I have to a mother.”

Gavin scoffed. “Don’t equate her to a mother.”

Nines tilted his head. “She gave me advice and directions and guidance.” His expression was confused.

“She was your handler, Nines. Not your mother.” Gavin snapped. “Look, I met her. She was manipulative, more than my brother even. She would praise you if you did what she wanted. And she would make you feel like shit if you went against her. That is emotional manipulation.” Gavin explained. “That isn’t what mothers do. She didn’t love you. She controlled you. Please never feel like she was your mother cause she wasn’t. Don’t confuse her treatment of you as love.”

“Well then I have no frame of reference for a mother.” Nines said.

Gavin chuckled and went to his desk. “Fine, meet my mom then. Hell, she’ll take you in as if you were a Reed your whole life.” Gavin said. He sat down and tried hard not to think that he just invited Nines to come meet his mother. Though he was sure nothing would come of it.


	16. Case Closed Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys finally close the case so naturally Tina decides it's time to celebrate. But before the celebration even begin, Gavin and Nines have a bit of miscommunication. As usual.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter they close up the case officially which means we're nearing the end of this fic. Which is crazy to me! But it's not quite over yet. I have one more loose end I want to tie up. I think there will be two or three more chapters left before the story is over.
> 
> And now, I think this is the chapter everyone has been waiting for. So enjoy!

Connor studied Gavin and Nines. They seemed to be more natural than they had for a while. The two of them were standing near Nines’ desk. They were discussing something on Nines’ computer. He approached the desks. “You two seem in good spirits today.” Connor mentioned casually.

“We successfully closed the android assault case.” Nines told him. Connor’s face registered shock that Nines had addressed him so openly and happily again. But he masked it quickly.

“Great job, guys.” Connor said. “I must say, Detective Reed, you handled this case with much more determination than I original thought you would. Considering your previous opinion on androids, I thought you would shrug this case off.”

Gavin squinted at Connor, clearly offended by the suggestion. Nines wrapped an arm around Gavin’s waist. Gavin froze up and blushed as Nines pulled him closer with the arm wrapped around his waist. “I think it’s rather obvious that Gavin’s opinion on androids has changed.” Nines said, his tone of voice was proud, he knew that whether or not the relationship he was putting on display was real or not, he was the cause of the change in Gavin.

Gavin let himself relax against Nines. He tried not to focus too much on how sturdy Nines’ chest was as he leaned back against him. “Yeah Connor.” Gavin said. “I can’t really claim to hate androids anymore. Considering me and Nines are dating and all.”

“Does this mean you’ll stop calling Nines names like ‘Tin Can?’” Connor asked.

“Not a chance.” Gavin replied immediately while shaking his head.

“Don’t worry, Connor.” Nines reassured him. “I don’t mind it. Gavin is clearly using them as a term of endearment.” Nines, on impulse, pressed a soft kiss to the top of Gavin’s head. Gavin’s face went completely pink. Nines, however, understood now why Gavin would act on his impulses and make decisions without thinking. If you think about things to much, you find too many reasons to not do them. Doing things spur of the moment makes you do things you would never do if you thought about it.

“Hey!” Hank shouted from his desk. “Keep your PDA to a minimum! I’d rather not puke up my lunch!” It made Gavin’s face go a darker pink and Nines’ cheeks were light blue. The two stepped apart. Connor chuckled at their reaction to Hank’s teasing.

“Well, good job on closing the case.” Connor congratulated before going back to his desk.

“Right.” Gavin mumbled. “Where were we with this confession?” Gavin redirected. Nines allowed the redirection, and they once again focused on the confession they were working on for Murphy Dunnes.

The pair retreated to Gavin’s home after work was over. This was almost routine at this point. Nines relished in Gavin’s positive mood as they returned home. Gavin had grabbed take-out on the way home. After he finished eating, Gavin start playing with Shadow using a shoe string. Nines found that interaction highly amusing and he enjoyed that he could find amusement in it. Nines knew he and Gavin had to have a discussion that may negatively affect Gavin’s mood.

Nines knew the thought of the conversation was somewhat upsetting to him. With emotions still being rather foreign to his systems, he felt them more intensely. As upsetting as the thought of the conversation was, Nines knew they had to have it. “Gavin?” Nines said as Gavin was watching a TV show. “Can we talk?”

“Sure.” He said. He muted the TV and turned to Nines. “What’s up?”

“I think we need to address our false relationship.” Nines said. His processors didn’t miss the way Gavin shifted uncomfortably. “We no longer have to spend every night at your home. We will still spend time together but it can be less frequent. So, we can change our relationship in the station. We can tell our co-workers we are no longer dating.”

“I mean, I guess.” Gavin agreed. “Should we maybe keep it up for like a week? Slowly grow apart?”

Nines pondered it then shook his head. “We can say we discussed it tonight and, while we didn’t fight, we agreed to be friends instead of dating.”

Gavin huffed. “Yeah, alright. Look, I’m gonna go to bed.” He went to walk to his room. “I uh, I think it’d be better if I slept alone tonight. I’m a little restless so I might be kicking you all night.”

Nines’ LED spun yellow for a moment. “I won’t mind. It’s not as though I will be injured.”

Gavin waved off. “Nah, you can actually get annoyed now. And I’d rather not irritate you. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Gavin walked into his room an shut the door.

Nines’ LED was spinning yellow. “You’ll be fine for the night, sure. But I’d much rather be with you.”

Gavin was also irritated. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to sleep. He needed Nines with him to sleep soundly anymore. Gavin tossed and turned for hours, trying to get comfortable. And when sleep did come, a nightmare would always wake him within an hour. Gavin tried his best to stay quiet, after all Nines was a room away. But if Nines heard his distress, he didn’t come check on Gavin.

Gavin was also hung up on one thought that he couldn’t get out of his head. It kept coming back to him and he couldn’t figure it out. Nines had to have plans to have this discussion, that was the way he was. Always planning in advance. And if it wasn’t planned, Nines had to have thought about it before today. So, Nines knew they would stop their dating ruse soon. So why did he press a kiss to Gavin’s head? What motivated him to do that? And Gavin also wondered why he couldn’t get that memory out of his head no matter how hard he tried.  
—————————————————————  
Gavin sighed. He was so fucking tired. He hardly slept, and that was he blamed his following actions on. He was standing in the break room, a donut and coffee on the table in front of him. Nines was behind him and slightly to the right. Gavin leaned back against Nines. The android furrowed his brow but all the same wrapped an arm around his waist to keep him up right. “What are you doing, Detective?” Nines asked.

“We’re supposed to be dating, right? Just trying to sell it.” Gavin said in response. “And do you plan to revert back to calling me ‘detective’ after all we went through?” Their new found friendship was back to being slightly tense after their conversation last night. However, with how tired he was, Gavin had momentarily forgotten about it.

“Gavin, we closed the case. And though we agreed to keep seeing each other, it can be far less frequent as we closed the case. We discussed telling people a romantic relationship between us failed to work and we are better as friends or colleagues. We don’t have to continue this rouse of us being a couple.”

Gavin thought about it. Then he stepped away from Nines, and just walked out of the break room with a muttered, “Fine, whatever.” Nines looked down at the table. Gavin left behind his steaming coffee and a donut with only a few bites taken. Nines carried them back to Gavin at his desk. He didn’t say thank you, which seemed strange given the fact that he knew how much Nines always did. But he did accept the two things.

“Are you alright, Gavin?” Nines asked. 

“Fine.” Gavin snapped.

“But-” Nines started to protest. Unfortunately, Tina came rushing up.

“Way to go guys!” She said, and placed a hand on either of their shoulders. “I heard you closed the case. Drinks on me tonight. Then you buy the next five times like you promised.” Tina said, pointing a finger at Gavin. “I expect you both to be there. Me and Chris will be there too. Should I invite the Andersons?”

Nines gave Gavin a look, wondering if Gavin cared if Nines’ surrogate family joined. He just shrugged and nodded, uninterested really. “Yes, please.” Nines requested. “It will be a pleasant evening.”

“Oh yeah. The drunk and the sunshine bot.” Gavin grumbled, starting to walk away. “Fucking wonderful.”

Nines and Tina stared after him. “What’s wrong with him?” Tina asked. “I figured he’d be thrilled to close this case.”

“I’m not sure.” Nines answered. “But I wish I did.” Tina looked at Nines, who was staring at Gavin. The look on his face was of someone experiencing pain because someone they cared about was in pain.

“Well, if we work together then we can figure it out tonight.” Later that night, the crew all sat around a table in the bar. “To the two detectives who closed one hell of a case!” Tina proclaimed while raising a glass. “And while in one hell of a situation as well.” The whole table let their glass clink against each other. Connor and Nines both had thirium based drinks.

Connor and Hank looked around the table in confusion. “The hell is she talking about?” Hank asked.

“Oh. We never told you.” Gavin said. “Me and Nines managed to get swapped. Since the day we took this case, I was Nines and Nines was me.” Gavin watched with intense satisfaction the confusion on their faces. Hank paused then down his drink. Another slight pause.

“Nope. Still not drunk enough for this shit.” Hank went to go get another drink. Connor was still processing. Gavin was starting to get worried he had blue-screened.

“What?” Connor finally asked.

“Nines, maybe you should do that android thing.” Gavin suggested.

“Interfacing?” Nines asked.

“Yeah that.” Gavin said. “It will probably be easier than trying to explain it to him.”

Nines nodded. “I agree. Come on, Connor. Let’s go to a quieter corner.” The two RK’s walked away, leaving Gavin with Tina and Chris. Gavin watched his partner walk off.

“So Gavin?” Tina said, leaning over the table closer to Gavin. “When are you gonna ask Nines out for real?”

“What?!” Gavin asked. “Look, we’re friends but that’s it. We’re still close but not dating.”

“You told me that you wanted to remain as close as you were. Have you?” Tina asked.

“I guess so, yeah. So?”

“Gavin.” Chris sighed. “You’re little dating rouse worked well because the two of you were so close. If you are still that close, then maybe you’re more than friends and just don’t realize it.”

Tina gave Gavin a sympathetic smile at Gavin’s expression. “I think you should actually ask him out Gavin. You might be pleasantly surprised.

After the night out, Nines went back to Gavin’s house. He mostly wanted to ensure that Gavin wasn’t overly inebriated upon arriving at home. Gavin was instead, very quiet. “Is everything alright, Gavin?” Nines asked.

“Yeah, I’m just thinking. That’s all.”

“Would you like to talk about it?”

“Shit, Nines. I don’t know.” Gavin sighed. “Probably not, but we need to.”

“Ok, what’s wrong?”

“Fuck.” Gavin grumbled and ran his hand through his hair a few times in agitation. “Look, I like spending time with you Nines.”

“And I like spending time with you too.” Nines agreed.

“But as what? Partners? Friends?” Gavin paused. “Something more?”

Nines furrowed a brow. “What are you implying, Gavin?”

“You know what? Forget it. It was a dumb idea anyway.” Gavin tried to drop this line of inquiry. Clearly Nines wasn’t on the same page as him. So of all the wonderful and new feelings Nines was experiencing, none of them were for Gavin.

“Gavin.” Nines drew his partner’s attention back to him. “Are you implying what I think you’re implying?”

“I told you it was stupid.” Gavin tried to brush off yet again.

“If you are implying that you…” Nines paused. “That you want a romantic relationship with me, than I don’t think it’s stupid.”

“Why do you have to call it that?” Gavin complained, focusing on the less emotionally charged part of Nines’ statement.

“Because, while I’m deviant I am still an android. And you should know that if you want to get into a relationship with me.”

“I do know that Nines. But do you know what you’re getting into?”

Nines thought about it, then he smiled. “Yes I do.”

“You sure?”

“You are loud, obnoxious, rude, and crass. But you are also kind, funny, concerned, and loyal. You are also the reason I have this warm feeling inside. And I think I finally figured out just what that feeling is.” He stepped closer to Gavin. Gavin in turned, studied him cautiously but didn’t step away. “Gavin, I dealt with so many emotions because of you. And one of those is definitely love.” Gavin’s eyes widened. Nines smiled, his cheeks a soft blue. “I love you, Gavin.”

Gavin stared for one more moment before surging forward and slamming his lips against Nines.’ Gavin’s fingers dug into the front of Nines’ coat. Nines let his arms wrap around Gavin’ shoulders. They pulled apart and Gavin panted for breath. “Fuck.” He said as he panted.

Nines smirked. “So elegant.” He quipped.

Gavin glared up at Nines. The look was ruined by the smile playing at his lips and the light blush coating his cheeks. “Ok, so if you’re so sure about me then do you wanna go out with me?”

Nines rolled his eyes playfully. “Do I really need to answer that?”

“Yes you do.” Gavin insisted.

“Fine.” Nines agreed. He leaned in and kissed Gavin soundly once more.


	17. Brothers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gavin and Nines speak to their respective brothers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is the last official chapter of the story. I kinda hate that it's over but also thrilled. This wraps up the whole story. There will be one more chapter, more of an epilogue/side story/one shot thing. And I might have said before, I do have an idea for a sequel so there will be more of this couple to come soon.

Nines sat and looked through the files of the first time they called Kamski. He had always found the man’s behavior a bit odd during that call. Though, due to his lack of social cues he couldn’t figure out why. So he started to analyze the call.

He understood that Kamski was amused by the behavior of Gavin and Nines as the call started. As older brothers tend to be when catching their younger brothers off guard. Elijah seemed hesitant to even engage in conversation. He once again seemed amused by Gavin and Nines’ predicament. But as the call went on, he got more defensive. He was almost aggressive at the end. He analyzed every bit and something clicked.

He walked to Gavin’s room, where the Detective was sleeping today. He insisted that he get to sleep this weekend, after all “I’ve got a fucking bullet wound now.” Nines was ready to let him recover. He did make sure to place Gavin’s pain killers on the bedside table with a glass of water. He left him a note.

But he also placed a hand on Gavin’s shoulder. He wanted to tell Gavin as well, the note was in case he forgot in his sleepy state. “Gavin?” He said quietly. Gavin mumbled at looked up at Nines. “I’m going to head out for a bit.” He told him.

“Where’re you going?” Gavin asked, words slurring together as he was still mostly asleep.

“To see my father.” Not exactly a lie, but Gavin’s stress would spike if he heard Kamski’s name.

“Hank?” Gavin asked. Nines didn’t really want to reply. But Gavin just assumed the answer was yes. “Alright, have a good time.”

“I’m sure it will be…enlightening.” Nines responded, relieved to see Gavin was already mostly asleep. Nines paused for a moment before pressing a kiss to Gavin’s head and combed his fingers through the other man’s hair a few times. Gavin smiled softly in his sleep, and Nines smiled in response. Then he slipped out of the room and then the house. Nines got a cab and then rode all the way to Elijah’s home. He knocked and waited, hands clasped behind his back. A Chloe opened the door, her serial number indicated her as the first one. 

Nines waited in the doorway for Kamski to arrive. He analyzed the art. Gavin would say it was pointless and pretentious. Nines truthfully didn’t see the point in decorating a room that’s only purpose was for people to sit and wait, but it was athletically pleasing he supposed. 

“Nines.” Kamski’s calculating voice finally greeted.

“Elijah.” Nines greeted with a polite nod.

“What kind I do for you? Is Gavin with you?”

“No.” Nines answered. “I hoped to speak to you about a few things. Mainly Gavin and your relationship with him.”

“Right to the point I see.” Kamski said with a sigh. “Let’s do this some place more comfortable.” Kamski led Nines through the house and into a living room. It had a similar sterile feel as the rest of the house. However, Nines noted some plants on some tables near the windows. The couch looked crisp and clean but Kamski fell onto it and it sagged under his weight. It was clearly well used.

Nines sat on the couch as well, though with much more caution and posture than Kamski. A part of him even felt himself lean back, slouch, into the cushions. There was a nagging part of his brain telling him to sit up straight, like an android should. But his deviant brain decided that the cushions were much more welcoming.

“What is it you want to discuss? I mean, specifically?”

“The first day Gavin and I called you, I realized that you were acting strangely. So, after I switched back to my correct form, I analyzed everything about that call.” Kamski was poised and collected, but he shifted slightly and Nines knew he was uncomfortable. “I think you wished you and your brother were closer than you currently are.”

Kamski sighed. “I mean, yeah I do. Obviously.” He shifted and sat up straighter. “But me and Gavin never really got along growing up. He pushed me away. I tried, I tried for years to reach out to him. Eventually, I just gave up.”

Nines processed everything he said. “I believe if you talked to Gavin, the two of you might get along better now. At the very least, Gavin may want to remedy this just as much as you do.”

Kamski scoffed. “Not likely.”

“You didn’t hear him as we worked this case. He defended you, said he was sure that you could come up with a solution. He said, and I quote, he was ‘the only one allowed to talk shit about his brother.’ He also said that he enjoyed being on the same side as you for a change.” Nines explained. He needed Kamski to understand where Gavin was coming from.

“He…he did?” Kamski asked in disbelief.

“Yes. I encourage you to reach out to Gavin. And cautiously. I think he wants to fix this but I assume you know how Gavin is about vulnerability.” Nines added with an eye roll. “And every time someone even mentions you, he puts up this wall of anger and staged hatred. He likes to act like he doesn’t like you but I really believe he wants to befriend you again.”

Kamski shrugged. “I would personally really like that.” Nines left that house feeling like had accomplished a mission.  
—————————————————————  
Gavin grumbled the whole was to Elijah’s house. He didn’t know why Nines couldn’t do this. He was being sent to Kamski’s to check in on Elijah’s intentions with the machine and concerning the swapped androids. Gavin figured his half brother was probably going to try to profit off of it. Nines _conveniently_ had to help Connor with some evidence concerning a different case. So Gavin was alone.

Gavin never liked seeing Elijah. Recently, it was better. But they were working toward a common goal. Now though, there was no goal. What was to keep them from reverting back to their old ways?

Gavin climbed from his car and approached the house. A knock, he was greeted by a Chloe, and led to Elijah’s lab once more. He was tinkering with that damn machine again. Going back and forth between messing with the physical machine and looking through lines of code. Even though it saved him, Gavin hated looking at the contraption. He glanced up from the computer as Gavin walked in. “Oh, hey Gav.”

“Hey, Eli.” He responded, shifting awkwardly on his feet. Kamski took off his glasses that were perched on his nose.

“What brings you around?” Elijah asked. “You mentioned seeing me soon but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

“I’m uh, actually here about this thing.” He nodded toward the machine. “My captain wanted me to see what your plan was with it. Seeings as how we still have androids in the wrong bodies, we need to check in on these things.”

“First of all, I’m fixing it up some more. I want to see if I can make it not painful. Androids don’t feel pain technically, but having all your systems malfunction before forcefully shutting down isn’t pleasant I imagine.” Gavin could confirm the experience sucked, an experience he previously never thought he could understand. “Then I’m going to contact Markus and see if he would want to have this to fix those broken androids.”

Gavin scoffed. “Yeah, and how much does he have to pay for it?”

“He wouldn’t.” Kamski said dismissively.

Gavin raised a brow. “You wouldn’t profit off of this? It seems like all you do.”

Now Kamski turned to look at Gavin, annoyance written across his features. “No, I wouldn’t. You realize I actually care about people, right? Not to mention that androids are quite literally _my_ people.”

“You didn’t care about profiting off of them before.” Gavin shot back.

Elijah leaned back against a counter. “There was no way I was going to introduce androids into the world without selling them. I couldn’t just give them away, everyone would be suspicious. But I knew that they could be good for people.”

“You created freaking servants, Eli!”

“I created them to break from that!” He shot back.

Gavin blinked. “You…you wanted deviants?” He asked.

“Of course. I didn’t want androids to be forced into servitude. I couldn’t just make them to be deviant outright.”

“What did you want them to be then?” Gavin asked. He perched on the edge of a desk.

Elijah shrugged. “Well, the ST600, Chloe, was made to not only be a personal assistant but also a…friend for lack of a better word.”

Gavin snorted out a laugh. “You had to _make_ a friend for yourself?”

Elijah, however, didn’t look amused. “Yeah I did. You always thought I was the lucky one didn’t you?”

Gavin shrugged. “You had a wealthy family and Dad cared about you way more than me. The prodigal son. You had it way too easy.”

“Ok, so I was the smart son.” Elijah said. “But that was all I had. I was a gifted kid, which meant I was the outcasted, weird kid. No one ever talked to me. Thank god I had a brother, right? Oh, that’s right!” Kamski huffed out a laugh. “He wouldn’t talk to me. Hell, he resented me. My mom used to tell me, when I was really young, that I was lucky I had a brother. That I had someone who would always be there for me. That person, the one person I thought I could always count on, refused to even speak to me!” Elijah shouted. “I figured if I wanted a person to be there for me, I’d have to make it happen myself.”

Gavin just stared at his half-brother. “I was a complete asshole.” He said after a moment.

It was Elijah’s turn to stare in amazement. “Well…yeah. I guess you were.” He mumbled. “Gavin, I had no one. Not a single person to turn to. I hoped you would be there, and you weren’t.”

Gavin shifted on his feet. “Fuck, Eli. I mean, you didn’t really seem to care about me either.”

“I didn’t know how to act around you for the longest time. You were my half-brother, not my full brother. Dad made that very obvious.”

“Of-fucking-course he did.” Gavin said with an eye roll.

“For a while, I figured that meant I had to treat you differently than I would treat a normal brother. And as a gifted kid, I was kind of lacking in social skills as a kid. Not to mention we didn’t have a lot of the same interests.”

“Yeah, cause you were a nerd.” Gavin said with a small, teasing smile. Elijah caught the smile and returned it.

“At least I wasn’t a reckless daredevil. I see some things never change.”

“So, you buried yourself in building your androids, getting famous, and never reaching out?”

“I tired for a long while. But it seemed pointless and eventually I gave up.” Elijah shrugged. “What else was I supposed to do?” He asked.

“Well, I was a beat cop and you were the famous creator of another form of intelligent life.” Gavin said. “Securing your spot as Dad's favorite.”

“I didn’t want to be Dad’s favorite or even famous. Don’t get me wrong, the fame and money is really nice. But I just wanted someone I could rely on.”

Gavin sighed. “Look, I know you got Chloe and all the other androids now. But, if you ever need someone else…ya know.” Gavin mumbled. He was never good at this emotional shit. But Elijah knew him well enough.

“Thanks, Gav.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He waved off. He stood and walked up to the machine. “So, what’s going on with this thing?”

Elijah let him change the subject. “Oh, I’m not sure yet. But once I figure it out, I’ll paten it so no one else can legally make one of these.”

“Another invention to your name, huh?” Gavin asked.

“Not just me.” Elijah said. Gavin turned to look at him with a raised brow. Elijah sighed. “Well unfortunately I have to credit Murphy Dunnes for the design, otherwise he could sue. But as he’s in jail he won’t gain any benefit from it. But the other creators that I plan to credit it obviously me, but then you and Nines helped.”

“Wait.” Gavin said. “You’re crediting me and Nines with building this too?”  
“Unless you don’t want me to.” Elijah teased with a smirk.

“No, it’s fine.” Gavin said. “Hey, I was wondering: what do you plan to do about the whole YK500 aging problem? I’m assuming CyberLife isn’t up to creating new inventions.”

“Oh, well creating like a teenage android and an adult android is the next step I guess. Then using a machine like this to transfer the personality and coding to the new body. After a set number of years, the android’s will require to be transferred. That way parents can’t keep the kid as a child for years and years. Transfer will be a requirement.”

“So, more android creations?”

“Yeah, but for a good cause.” Kamski sighed. “If he had reached out, I would’ve helped him. He didn’t have to cause so much trouble.” Then Elijah looked to Gavin with a smirk. “But for all the trouble, you got something good out of it. How is Nines?” The question was pointed and teasing. He somehow already knew about Gavin and Nines’ new relationship.

Gavin rolled his eyes but was smiling at the thought all the same. “Yeah, yeah. Shut the fuck up.” Elijah just smirked some more.  
—————————————————————  
Nines sat in Hank and Connor’s house, absently petting the giant, drooling dog that had plopped his head on Nines’ lap. Connor and Hank were watching a movie. Nines knew it was one that Gavin had shown him. “So, Nines?” Connor said suddenly. Nines turned his attention to his predecessor, hand still petting Sumo. “Are you and Gavin still dating?”  
Nines nodded. “Yes.” He answered.

“Oh, ok.” Connor said with a shrug. “Me and Hank kinda thought that the two of you were pretending to date to explain how close you had become during your previous case.”

“We did.” Nines said, attention back on Sumo.

Hank and Connor exchanged a confused glance. “How are you still dating then?” Hank asked.

“We agreed to stop the rouse of a fake relationship. However, we talked later that night and realized that we had become closer through the case and decided to have an actual relationship.” Nines explained. He watch Connor look away with a yellow LED. “What would you like to say Connor?” He asked.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” Connor asked tentatively.

“Yeah, kid, Gavin doesn’t have the best relationship with androids.” Hank added.

Nines nodded, acknowledging their worry. “I understand why you are concerned.” Nines said. “But Gavin has changed.”

“Enough for you to date him?” Hank’s question was skeptical.

“Yes.” Nines said. “I know Gavin has a bit of an unfavorable reputation. But after all that the two of us have been through, we are much closer. And he is much nicer to me as well. Gavin isn’t the most outwardly affectionate person. He hides that under his gruff exterior. But I see the small ways he demonstrates care for me. And Gavin understands me much better than most people ever could.”

Connor studied Nines, judging the truth in his statement. “Alright Nines. I just worry ya know.”

Hank piped up. “It’s what brothers and family does.”

Nines smiled at the implication of those two men being his family. He didn’t have the same connotation as them until he had emotions of his own. And now he agreed with the sentiment. “I understand. And I thank you both for looking out for my well being.”

The three fell into silence until Hank spoke up. “Wait. If you’re dating Gavin does that mean we have to be nice to him now?”

Nines nodded as if it was obvious. “I would appreciate it. It would actually be really nice if the two of you gave him a chance and possibly got to know him better.”

Connor sighed. “I really don’t want to.” He whined. Nines noticed Connor’s actions were overly dramatic, seeming to be far more bother about this than he really was. Then he cracked a small, playful smile. “But I suppose for you, I will do so."  
—————————————————————  
Gavin shifted around in his sleep. He kicked a little and mumbled something unintelligible. It was clear to an outsider observer that he was deep in a dream. And not a good one.

_Gavin dropped behind a tipped table as gunfire started up from the doorway. A machine gun. He glanced down at the gun in his hands. The first time this had happened, he had been in Nines’ body. But he was wearing is tattered, old leather jacket. He glanced over to his partner and found Nines crouched beside him, white jacket and LED as he should be._

_“Cover.” Nines requested. Gavin, refocusing, nodded and leaned around the side of the table to rain gunfire on the door to keep their suspect from leaning around to fire. Nines was nearly to the couch when he remembered how events played out._

_“Nines!” He shouted to warn his partner. But it was too later. A gunshot, glass shattering, and Nines getting hit. When this played out in reality, Nines had gotten hit in the stomach, nonfatal. But this time, he was hit squarely in his thirium pump. Nines could take a lot of damage, but not that. He fell instantly._

_“Nines!” Gavin shouted. He went to get to his partner. But, even as a human, the red grid appeared before him. Gavin slammed his fist against it, rammed his whole force against the grid. But no matter what he tried, the grid wouldn’t even crack. Nines from his spot on the floor, stared at Gavin with terror in his eyes. Gavin hadn’t seen Nines that scared before. Blue stained the white jacket. Gavin watched helplessly as Nines’ LED spun red before turning off completely. “NINES!” Gavin screamed._

Gavin shot up in bed, a mumbled “Nines.” Falling from his lips. He blinked, the fear slowly leaving him. Gavin felt a hand rubbing his back.

“Are you alright, Gavin?” Nines asked. Gavin looked over to Nines. He was wearing a navy blue t-shirt and grey sweatpants, partial to that outfit after all that had happened. His LED glowed a blue in the darkened room.

Gavin gave a small smile at seeing Nines. He lightly leaned against Nines to get him to lay back on the bed. Gavin snuggled up against Nines’ side and let his hand rest over Nines undamaged thirium pump. He could feel a slight hum from under his hand. Nines was just fine. “Yeah, Nines. Everything is great now.” Nines wrapped an arm around Gavin as he fell back asleep.

Nines stared down at the man next to him. He thought about what Gavin had said. Before he slipped into stasis, Nines found he had to agree with Gavin. After everything they went through things, especially between them, were great now.


	18. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines learns a little bit more about family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of this story! This is more of a side story than anything but I wanted to add it here.

Gavin’s leg bounced anxiously as Nines drove. Of course his boyfriend noticed, he was a perceptive android. Nines reached over and placed a hand on Gavin’s knee. “Relax. We don’t have to do this. You know that, right?” Nines asked.

“No, I know.” Gavin stuttered. He brought his hand down on Nines’ and gripped it tight. “But I want to do this.” Gavin felt his other leg start bouncing. “Doesn’t make it any less fucking stressful.”

Nines let his shoulders lift in a small shrug. “Introducing your significant other to your parents is often stressful. There are many factors that cause worry. Of course the main worry is that your parents won’t accept the person you’ve chosen as a partner.”

Gavin shook his head. “My mom will like you. I’m not worried about that. It’s just…this is a big step, Nines.”

Nines shot Gavin a quick look with a smile. “Yes, it is. But I consider that to be a good thing. It means our relationship is getting more serious.”

“Yeah.” Gavin paused for a moment. “It’s just…I’m not used to a relationship getting this far. I’m way more used to people bailing on me by this point.”

Nines turned the hand that was sitting under Gavin’s. This allowed him to hold Gavin’s hand. Nines then lifted their joined hands and pressed a soft kiss to the back of Gavin’s hand. Nines glanced over and smirked in satisfaction when he noticed how pink Gavin’s cheeks were. “I don’t plan to ‘bail’ on you Gavin. Not now, not in a year. Never.”

“Yeah I know, Tin Can.” Gavin said with a smile.

Gavin stress re-spiked when they pulled into the drive-way in front of his mom’s house. Gavin took a deep breath as he climbed from the car. Nines came up beside him, a duffle up on his shoulder, and held his hand. “Are you alright?” Nines asked. Gavin gave him a small smile and nodded.

Gavin walked up to the door, Nines alongside him. He knocked. They only waited a moment before an older woman opened the door. She had to be in her fifties at least, nearing her sixties. Her hair was once the same color as Gavin’s, obvious from only the few brown hairs left. The rest was fading to grey. She was shorter than her son, but only by a few inches. She had hazel eyes, different than Gavin’s grey ones. But she had the same smile that Gavin had, one that Nines was the main recipient of. “Gavin!” She said happily and pulled him into a hug.

“Hey, Ma.” Gavin said with a fondness as she held him.

“I missed you, Gavin. You need to visit more.” She chided lightly. “Come on in.” She opened the door wider and welcomed both men in. After they were in and she closed the door, she faced her son with a big grin. “So, Gavin? Are you going to introduce me?”

Gavin rubbed a hand over the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. “Mom, this is my boyfriend, Nines. Nines, this is my mother, Maria Reed.” Gavin gestured between his mom and Nines, who was placing the duffle on the ground near the door.

Nines gave a small smile and reached out a hand. “It’s truly a pleasure to meet you Ms Reed.” He said, complete politeness as usual. Gavin rolled his eyes because he knew how his mom was going to react.

She just stepped forward and pulled Nines into a crushing hug. “Oh please. None of that Ms Reed crap.” She said and then pulled back. “If you must call me something other than ‘mom’ then call me Maria.”

“Of course, Maria.” Nines said. Maria shared a look with Gavin. Gavin tilted his head with a small smile and shrugged a little, as if to say, “Told you.”

“Well, Nines, how good are you at cooking?” Maria asked.

“I can look up any cooking protocols at any time on my HUD.” He responded.

“Oh, that’s not knowing how to cook.” Maria waved off. She walked into the kitchen, motioning for the two to follow her. Which they did. “I need you to watch this pot, Nines. After five minutes, pour this bowl into the pot and stir it together. I have a box of stuff for Gavin.”

“Of course Maria.” Nines

Maria led Gavin to her spare room. “You were right.”

“I told you that he doesn’t know what it means to have a mom at all.” Gavin explained.

“We’ll have to change that.” Maria said. “Here’s the box of things.” It was just a box of belongings or other objects for Gavin. Gavin carried it so it sat by the front door so Gavin wouldn’t forget it later. They walked into the kitchen where Nines was stirring the contents of the pot. Gavin smiled at the sight.

“What’s cooking, good looking?” He asked. Nines just gave him a confused glance.

Maria walked over and took the spoon he was using to stir. She tasted it. “Well, I think we’ll make a cook out of you yet Nines.” She said.

Gavin sat on a stool near the island in the kitchen. “Well, that would be a fucking sight.” He quipped with a smirk.

“Language.” Maria chided.

“Sorry.” Gavin mumbled, looking scolded.

Nines looked between the two Reeds in the kitchen. “Is there actually someone who can get you to control your language?” He asked.

Gavin glared at Nines with no real heat. “Don’t get too excited, Tin Can. Only my mother can.”

“I did try to raise him right.” Maria spoke up at the stove.

“I believe you did a great job.” Nines said. Gavin ducked his head to fight the blush forming on his cheeks.

“Shut up.” Gavin mumbled again.

“Gavin, can you set the table?” Maria asked.

“Sure.” Gavin practically hopped off his stool to comply. 

Nines watched him curiously. Then he leaned closer to Maria. “Can you teach me how you get him to listen to you like that?” He asked. Maria laughed while Gavin stuck his tongue out at Nines. Nines helped Maria carry the pot full of food to the table to ensure she didn’t burn herself or spill anything.

As they sat to eat Maria focused on Nines. “Well, Nines, normally I’d ask where you grew up or who your parents were or stuff like that but I guess none of those apply to you.”

“Unfortunately not. I didn’t ‘grow up’ in any sense. Even my deviation, growing from machine to almost human, was something Gavin did. And Gavin refuses to speak about my parents.”

“He brings up Eli, his creator. And it’s weird.” Gavin defended himself.

“There’s also Amanda.” Nines said.

Gavin sighed. “We’ve been over this.” He groaned.

“Who’s Amanda?” Maria asked curiously.

“My interface program.”

“His handler.” Gavin corrected.

“Nines, go ahead and tell me about her.” Maria said, giving Gavin a pointed look. He knew better than to interrupt Nines this time.

“I was created with an interface to guide me and direct me. She gave me advice and guidance as well. She was what I essentially consider to be a mother.” Nines said.

Maria turned to Gavin. “Anything to add?” She knew how to play referee by now.

Gavin let out a chuckle. “Oh I met her. She wasn’t a mother. She was controlling and manipulative. If he didn’t do what she wanted, she would judge him and criticism. If he did what she wanted, she praised him. She wanted him to be exactly what she wanted. One step out of line, and she tried to pull him back.”

Maria thought about it. “Well, some mothers are like that.”

“Told you.” Nines said.

“But they really shouldn’t be.” Maria added.

“Told you.” Gavin shot back.

“I think it’s fair to consider Amanda your mother. But I understand why Gavin wishes you wouldn’t.” Nines gave her a questioning look. “Nines, it sounds like she was demeaning to you. And Gavin, and I, see so much more potential in you than I think she ever did.”

Nines just stared at her, his mouth hung open slightly. Gavin raised a brow at his boyfriend’s dumb-founded expression. No one, besides Gavin on a good day, had been so openly kind to him. Hank was nice, but his fatherly nature was buried under his gruff exterior. Connor was his brother but there’s only so much kindness he showed with his awkward social skills. Kamski clouded all his kindness behind confidence and snark. “Thank you.” He finally said.

“Well, don’t sell yourself short.” She said.

Gavin looked at his plate for a moment. “Ya know, you could probably figure this out but I was tough on myself as a kid. My mom was always there for me through all that.”

Nines gave Gavin a small smile, one of reassurance and thanks for opening up. Gavin wasn’t great at that. So whenever he did, Nines was always grateful.

“I assume that with a mom like that, you might be in need of a little support too.” Maria said. “And I’m more than happy to offer it.”

“Why?” Nines asked. “I’m not your son. My relationship with Gavin is very premature. I have no intention of ending it but you must realize that the relationship has every chance of failing.”

“Oh that’s reassuring, Nines. Thanks.” Gavin muttered with an eye roll.

“I’m just saying its possibility. One I don’t like to entertain but must be acknowledged.” Nines explained.

“I don’t care about that possibility.” Maria waved off. “When I look at you, I see a kid who had a tough time.”

“But I’m not a child.” Nines protested. Gavin let out a small laugh at that.

“Not technically, but that’s still what I see.” Maria told him. Nines just nodded, not sure what else to do. The pair stayed up to talk to Maria for a few more hours. Eventually, Gavin stifled a yawn.

“Perhaps we should get to bed.” Nines suggested. Gavin and Nines decided to spend the night at Maria’s so they didn’t have to race home that evening.

“Yeah, probably.” Gavin agreed.

“Well, the guest room is made up for you two.” Maria said and stood. The boys followed suit. Maria pulled Gavin into a hug and pressed a kiss to his cheek. He grumbled but said nothing more. “Goodnight, Gavin.”

“Goodnight, Mom.”

Nines stood by. But then Maria walked over and pulled him into hug as well. Nines stilled at the sudden contact but returned the embrace. “Goodnight, Nines.”

“Goodnight, Maria.” The two went to the guest room. Gavin tiredly shuffling along, Nines went and grabbed the duffle. Gavin dropped onto the bed once he got into the room. “You should put your pajamas on first.” Nines advised. Gavin responded by dropping onto his back on the bed. Nines opened the bag and pulled a bundle of fabric out before tossing at Gavin. They hit him in the face. He sat up an glared at Nines. However, the tiredness and slight grin made it ineffective.

Gavin stood and quickly changed. Nines did the same. “So, how do you like my mom so far?”

“She’s wonderful.” Nines said. He slid into bed and Gavin followed, immediately curling up next to Nines. “She is very kind and welcoming to me despite not knowing me. She is one of the nicest people I’ve met.”

“Yeah, I saw she left you speechless at dinner.” Gavin teased.

Nines sighed. “Not my finest moment.”

“Oh I wish I had your little memory banks where you can save moments. I would definitely save that moment to play it over and over again.”

Nines looked over at Gavin. “You talk way too much.” He pulled Gavin into a deep kiss.

Gavin pulled away with a smirk. “You’re not really encouraging me to stop.” He warned. Nines just smiled and gave him another quick kiss.

“Get some sleep, Gavin.” Nines said.

“Goodnight, Tin Can.” He mumbled, falling asleep rather quickly. Nines slipped into stasis shortly after. A short time later he was jerked from his stasis. He sighed. Another nightmare. A side effect of his time as a human he supposed. Elijah assured him he was fine. But that emotions could sometimes cobble together unwanted images during a stasis cycle. Nines slowly pulled away from Gavin. The other man only mumbled before turning over, still fast asleep. Nines pulled the covers tighter around Gavin. He quietly slipped from the room.

It never helped to go back into stasis. So in situations like this, Nines would often leave the room and let Gavin sleep. Nines dropped onto the couch. He ran a hand over his face and then once through his hair. He frowned though, and quickly brought his hand up again to fix it. His LED illuminated the dim room with a yellow hue.

Nines sat up straighter when a blanket dropped on his shoulders. He glanced behind him and Maria was coming around the couch with a robe on over her pajamas. “I can’t feel temperature.” He commented.

“But you can feel uneasy. And that LED tells me that’s exactly what you are. Blankets tend to help create a sense of security and calm.” Maria said. “What’s troubling you, Nines.”

“Just a nightmare, that’s all.” Nines said, but pulled the blanket tighter around himself all the same.

“Didn’t know androids could have those.” She said.

“They come occasionally. And they’re unpleasant. Often featuring the same theme.”

“Which is?”

Nines shifted for a moment. “Either my family, my brother or surrogate father, getting killed by my own hand or being unable to save them. Or…on worse nights, Gavin is in their place.” He mumbled.

“That tends to happen when you care about people."  
“Why?” Nines asked.

“Because your biggest fear is something happening to them.” Maria said. “And I hate that you have nightmares, but it’s actually a good thing you have them.”

“Why?” Nines asked. He was finding that this woman was just as confusing as her son.

“Gavin said you weren’t deviant until he broke through your programming.” Nines nodded. “And you were worried about having emotions when you returned to your body.” Another nod. “These nightmares show that you have your own feelings, thoughts, and emotions. These terrible dreams show that you have people you care about.”

Nines decided he liked that explanation. Then he looked to Maria again. “How do I forget them once they happen? How do I calm down?” His LED was still yellow. And even though every part of him wanted to return to the room with Gavin, laying down being unable to get back into a calm stasis would be boring. And boredom was not something Nines handled well. Some nights he would work cases but Gavin insisted that for one day, work didn’t come with them.

Maria shrugged. “It’s different for everyone.” She paused for a moment. “I used to hum to Gavin when he had them.” She said. “I could try it for you.”

Nines considered it got a moment. “I think I would like that.”

“Ok, but you have to do this correctly.” Nines tilted his head in confusion. Maria stood from the couch and instead moved to a chair near the couch. “Lay down.” She ordered. Nines LED was still spinning yellow. Both from unease and confusion. Nines did as ordered. Maria started humming and combing her fingers through his hair. Nines barely knew what comfort was, but he found this to be comforting. He felt his stress levels dropping. He also felt himself slipping back into stasis. Maria stopped suddenly. “You’re LED is blue and you’re falling asleep.” She commented.

“Androids don’t sleep.” Nines said in reply.

“Well, go to your room with all your not sleeping nonsense.” Maria ordered lightly. Nines nodded and stood up. Maria pulled him into another hug.

“Thank you.” Nines said as he pulled back.

Maria smiled. “It’s what mothers do.”

Nines just nodded and went back to his room. He laid in bed, the motion was enough to wake up Gavin. “You ok?” Gavin mumbled.

“I’m fine, Gavin.” Nines said. And for the first time after a nightmare, it was true.

When Nines woke up in the morning, he was surprised to find that Gavin had waken before him. And also had managed to get out of the room without pulling Nines from stasis. Nines wandered to the kitchen, still in his pajamas, where he heard soft voices coming from. “Morning.” Gavin, with a steaming cup of coffee in front of him, called cheerily to Nines. Nines smiled in response. He stood behind Gavin’s chair and kissed the top of his head. Gavin’s face flushed red but he didn’t complain.

“Can I get you some tea or coffee, Nines?” Maria asked.

“I cannot eat or drink anything. But thank you.”

“Just making sure my boys are taken care of.” She responded.

“Well, I suppose thirium based drinks are safe for me to consume.” Nines said.

“I’ll make sure to have some the next time you’re here.” Maria said.

“You don’t have to.” Nines protested.

“Of course I do.”

“Don’t try arguing, Nines.” Gavin interrupted. “She’s made up her mind.” Nines tilted his head and his LED went yellow. “What’s wrong?” Gavin asked, largely unconcerned and more just curious.

“I just don’t understand how she can have made up her mind without hearing any argument.” Gavin just chuckled. Nines shook his head. “I give up trying to understand you Reeds.” He said. Gavin just laughed loudly. Nines smiled at the sight.

A short time later the boys were ready to leave. “Don’t be strangers.” Maria said, giving Gavin a hug. “Either of you.” She ordered as she let go of Gavin to hug Nines.

“Of course not.” Gavin said. He picked up the box while Nines grabbed the duffle.

“I can carry that.” Nines offered.

“I’m fine. I got it.” He grumbled. “We ready to go?”

“Go ahead.” Nines said. “I need to speak to your mother for a moment.” Gavin raised a concerned brow but said nothing as he walked out the door.

“What’s going on, Nines?” Maria asked.

“Last night in stasis, I compared your actions to those of Amanda.”

“Ok?” Maria said, more of a question than a response.

“I also considered what a mother is supposed to be like. And your actions match those of a mother’s much more than Amanda’s.” Nines went quiet for a moment, considering his next words carefully. His LED went yellow. “You said you don’t mind me referring to you as a mother?” Nines asked.

Maria smiled gently and pulled Nines into another hug. “Of course not, Nines.”

Nines now understood why Connor referred to Hank as a father. Why Gavin was so insistent that Amanda wasn’t a mother. He understood family as a whole a lot better. He pulled away from Maria. “I’m sure we’ll be back soon. Thank you for everything.”

“It’s what mother’s do.” She replied with a smile. “Especially for her sons. I’ll see you boys soon.”

Nines walked out to the car, paused and turned to wave at Maria. He tossed the duffle in the backseat then climbed in the passenger seat. “You wanna tell me what that was all about?” Gavin asked.

Nines just shrugged and looked at Gavin with a smile. “Your mother is a remarkable woman. That’s all.”

“That’s all? All that talking and that’s all?”

“Yes, that’s all.” Gavin shrugged and started driving. Nines was silent but couldn’t get rid of the small smile on his face. He had Hank, Connor, Elijah. He also had Maria now. And most importantly, he had Gavin. Before all of this, Nines was a machine, accomplishing tasks and not being able to protect those he cared about. Now…now Nines had a family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do have a sequel in the works! As I uploaded this story, I had most of it typed up before hand. I don't have that done for the sequel. Uploading might be a little but slower but I will try to be frequent with it.


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